At first, `huggingface_hub` was mostly built around the [`Repository`] class. It provides
Python wrappers for common `git` commands such as `"git add"`, `"git commit"`, `"git push"`,
`"git tag"`, `"git checkout"`, etc.  
The library also helps with setting credentials and tracking large files, which are often
used in machine learning repositories. Additionally, the library allows you to execute its
methods in the background, making it useful for uploading data during training.  
The main advantage of using a [`Repository`] is that it allows you to maintain a local
copy of the entire repository on your machine. This can also be a disadvantage as
it requires you to constantly update and maintain this local copy. This is similar to
traditional software development where each developer maintains their own local copy and
pushes changes when working on a feature. However, in the context of machine learning,
this may not always be necessary as users may only need to download weights for inference
or convert weights from one format to another without the need to clone the entire
repository.  
<Tip warning={true}>  
[`Repository`] is now deprecated in favor of the http-based alternatives. Given its large adoption in legacy code, the complete removal of [`Repository`] will only happen in release `v1.0`.  
</Tip>