diff --git a/apps/svelte.dev/scripts/sync-docs/index.ts b/apps/svelte.dev/scripts/sync-docs/index.ts
index c40e37c674..4866a41787 100644
--- a/apps/svelte.dev/scripts/sync-docs/index.ts
+++ b/apps/svelte.dev/scripts/sync-docs/index.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { preprocess } from '@sveltejs/site-kit/markdown/preprocess';
 import path from 'node:path';
 import fs from 'node:fs';
+import { parseArgs } from 'node:util';
 import ts from 'typescript';
 import glob from 'tiny-glob/sync';
 import chokidar from 'chokidar';
@@ -19,6 +20,22 @@ interface Package {
 	process_modules?: (modules: Modules, pkg: Package) => Promise<Modules>;
 }
 
+const parsed = parseArgs({
+	args: process.argv.slice(2),
+	options: {
+		watch: {
+			type: 'boolean',
+			short: 'w'
+		},
+		pull: {
+			type: 'boolean',
+			short: 'p'
+		}
+	},
+	strict: true,
+	allowPositionals: true
+});
+
 const dirname = fileURLToPath(new URL('.', import.meta.url));
 const REPOS = path.join(dirname, '../../repos');
 const DOCS = path.join(dirname, '../../content/docs');
@@ -111,29 +128,42 @@ const packages: Package[] = [
 	{
 		name: 'cli',
 		repo: 'sveltejs/cli',
-		branch: 'chore/add-docs',
+		branch: 'main',
 		pkg: 'packages/cli',
 		docs: 'documentation/docs',
 		types: null
 	}
 ];
 
+const unknown = parsed.positionals.filter((name) => !packages.some((pkg) => pkg.name === name));
+
+if (unknown.length > 0) {
+	throw new Error(
+		`Valid repos are ${packages.map((pkg) => pkg.name).join(', ')} (saw ${unknown.join(', ')})`
+	);
+}
+
+const filtered =
+	parsed.positionals.length === 0
+		? packages
+		: packages.filter((pkg) => parsed.positionals.includes(pkg.name));
+
 /**
  * Depending on your setup, this will either clone the Svelte and SvelteKit repositories
  * or use the local paths you provided above to read the documentation files.
  * It will then copy them into the `content/docs` directory and process them to replace
  * placeholders for types with content from the generated types.
  */
-if (process.env.USE_GIT === 'true') {
+if (parsed.values.pull) {
 	try {
 		fs.mkdirSync(REPOS);
 	} catch {
 		// ignore if it already exists
 	}
 
-	await Promise.all(
-		packages.map((pkg) => clone_repo(`https://github.com/${pkg.repo}.git`, pkg.branch, REPOS))
-	);
+	for (const pkg of filtered) {
+		await clone_repo(`https://github.com/${pkg.repo}.git`, pkg.name, pkg.branch, REPOS);
+	}
 }
 
 async function sync(pkg: Package) {
@@ -157,16 +187,18 @@ async function sync(pkg: Package) {
 	}
 }
 
-for (const pkg of packages) {
+for (const pkg of filtered) {
 	await sync(pkg);
 }
 
-if (process.argv.includes('-w') || process.argv.includes('--watch')) {
-	for (const pkg of packages) {
+if (parsed.values.watch) {
+	for (const pkg of filtered) {
 		chokidar
 			.watch(`${REPOS}/${pkg.name}/${pkg.docs}`, { ignoreInitial: true })
 			.on('all', (event) => {
 				sync(pkg);
 			});
 	}
+
+	console.log(`\nwatching for changes in ${parsed.positionals.join(', ')}`);
 }
diff --git a/apps/svelte.dev/scripts/sync-docs/utils.ts b/apps/svelte.dev/scripts/sync-docs/utils.ts
index 2a925d131f..774bb2fe75 100644
--- a/apps/svelte.dev/scripts/sync-docs/utils.ts
+++ b/apps/svelte.dev/scripts/sync-docs/utils.ts
@@ -1,17 +1,21 @@
-import { spawn, type SpawnOptions } from 'node:child_process';
+import { execSync, spawn, type SpawnOptions } from 'node:child_process';
 import fs from 'node:fs';
 import glob from 'tiny-glob/sync';
 
-export async function clone_repo(repo: string, branch: string, cwd: string) {
-	const regex_result = /https:\/\/github.com\/\w+\/(\w+).git/.exec(repo);
-	if (!regex_result || regex_result.length < 2) {
-		throw new Error(`Expected https://github.com/xxx/xxx.git, but got ${repo}`);
-	}
+export async function clone_repo(repo: string, name: string, branch: string, cwd: string) {
+	const dir = `${cwd}/${name}`;
+
+	if (fs.existsSync(dir)) {
+		const opts = { cwd: dir };
+
+		if (execSync('git status -s', opts).toString() !== '') {
+			throw new Error(`${name} repo is dirty — aborting`);
+		}
+
+		await invoke('git', ['checkout', branch], opts);
+		await invoke('git', ['pull'], opts);
 
-	const dirname = `${cwd}/${regex_result[1]}`;
-	if (fs.existsSync(dirname)) {
-		// TODO skip if we detect that same branch is already cloned
-		fs.rmSync(dirname, { recursive: true });
+		return;
 	}
 
 	await invoke('git', ['clone', '--depth', '1', '--branch', branch, repo], {
@@ -22,14 +26,15 @@ export async function clone_repo(repo: string, branch: string, cwd: string) {
 export function invoke(cmd: string, args: string[], opts: SpawnOptions) {
 	const child = spawn(cmd, args, { ...opts, stdio: 'inherit' });
 
-	return new Promise<void>((resolve) => {
+	return new Promise<void>((fulfil, reject) => {
 		child.on('close', (code) => {
-			if (!code) {
-				console.log(`${[cmd, ...args].join(' ')} successfully completed`);
+			if (code) {
+				reject(new Error(`Exited with code ${code}`));
+				return;
 			}
 
 			// Give it some extra time to finish writing files to disk
-			setTimeout(() => resolve(), 500);
+			setTimeout(fulfil, 500);
 		});
 	});
 }