# Error when trying to download zika pathogen repository

**URL:** <https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/error-when-trying-to-download-zika-pathogen-repository/1999>\
**Category:** Help and Getting Started\
**Created:** [October 14, 2025, 8:40am UTC](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/error-when-trying-to-download-zika-pathogen-repository/1999 "2025-10-14T08:40:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lucindaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@lucindaG](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/u/lucindaG)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2025, 8:40am UTC](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/error-when-trying-to-download-zika-pathogen-repository/1999/1 "2025-10-14T08:40:17Z")

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Good Day

I am trying to download the zika pathogen repository. I have successfully managed to download Nextstrain, Augur and Auspice; however, I get an error after pasting ‘ git clone [https://github.com/nextstrain/zika-tutorial’](https://github.com/nextstrain/zika-tutorial%E2%80%99) on the command prompt. The error says git is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file.

How do you I navigate this issue?

regards

Lucinda

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**Author:** ![ivan-aksamentov](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/nextstrain.discourse.group/ivan-aksamentov/32/80_2.png) [@ivan-aksamentov](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/u/ivan-aksamentov)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2025, 12:20pm UTC](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/error-when-trying-to-download-zika-pathogen-repository/1999/2 "2025-10-14T12:20:42Z")

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Hi @lucindaG

We use GitHub and `git` to store and maintain our work:

- [GitHub](https://github.com/) is one of the websites for hosting git repositories online, such that many people can see, download and contribute to our work
- `git` is a command line tool to manage git repositories on your computer

It is not mentioned in Zika tutorial, but it assumes that you have `git` installed. You can find necessary installation instructions and learning materials on [the official git website](https://git-scm.com).

Feel free to also check GitHub documentation [here](https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/start-your-journey/about-github-and-git). They have excellent tutorials for both git and GitHub.

We should probably add this information to our Zika tutorial.

* * *

If you don’t want to deal with any of that, or have difficulties with git or GitHub, you can:

- Go to our Zika tutorial repository: [github.com/nextstrain/zika-tutorial](https://github.com/nextstrain/zika-tutorial)
- Click large green “Code” button
- Click “Download ZIP”
- Extract the downloaded zip archive

It will give you the latest contents of the repository, just like `git clone` does, except you won’t be able to do anything related to git there (for that, setup git and use `git clone`). But as far as I remember, this should be enough for Zika tutorial.