diff --git a/.github/workflows/root-ci.yml b/.github/workflows/root-ci.yml
index e6400a2d19e62..879596466daeb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/root-ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/root-ci.yml
@@ -148,6 +148,27 @@ jobs:
           ref: ${{ inputs.ref_name }}
           path: "src/"
 
+      - name: Clone clad
+        env:
+          GITHUB_PR_ORIGIN: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.repo.clone_url }}
+          OVERRIDES: ${{ join( matrix.overrides, ' ') }}
+        run: |
+          # set -x
+          cd /tmp
+          # git config --global --get-regexp 'http\..*extraheader' || true
+          # git config --system --get-regexp 'http\..*extraheader' || true
+          # git config --global --get-regexp credential || true
+          # git config --system --get-regexp credential || true
+          # # git ls-remote https://github.com/vgvassilev/clad.git
+          # curl -vI https://github.com 2>&1 | grep -E "issuer|subject|HTTP/" || true
+          # # trace 
+          # GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=1 GIT_TRACE=1 git clone https://github.com/vgvassilev/clad.git /tmp/clad-trace 2>&1 | head -300 || true
+          # # try clean env variables
+          # env -i PATH="$PATH" HOME="$HOME" git clone https://github.com/vgvassilev/clad.git /tmp/clad-clean || true
+          git config --global url."https://x-access-token:${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}@github.com/".insteadOf "https://github.com/" || true
+          echo "clone"
+          git clone https://github.com/vgvassilev/clad.git
+
       - uses: root-project/gcc-problem-matcher-improved@main
         with:
           build-directory: /Users/sftnight/ROOT-CI/src/
diff --git a/interpreter/cling/tools/plugins/clad/CMakeLists.txt b/interpreter/cling/tools/plugins/clad/CMakeLists.txt
index ab93259e12fa1..2bda528bb0656 100644
--- a/interpreter/cling/tools/plugins/clad/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/interpreter/cling/tools/plugins/clad/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ ExternalProject_Add(
   BUILD_COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build . ${EXTRA_BUILD_ARGS}
   INSTALL_COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build . ${EXTRA_BUILD_ARGS} --target install
   BUILD_BYPRODUCTS ${CLAD_BYPRODUCTS}
+  GIT_CONFIG     "credential.helper=" "http.https://github.com/.extraheader="
   ${_clad_extra_settings}
   # We need the target clangBasic to be built before building clad. However, we
   # support building prebuilt clang and adding clangBasic breaks this case.