[asadawadia]

i remember reading that too https://willi.am/blog/2014/10/14/for-the-last-time-git-store...

[mtone]

Assuming it's correct, I think this answer explains it well: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31996121/283879

Basically, yes it may write snapshots per-file (never per-commit) locally but there is a separate routine to transparently repack the whole thing with deltas.