diff --git a/setup.sh b/setup.sh
index d23f205..4c5b182 100644
--- a/setup.sh
+++ b/setup.sh
@@ -268,7 +268,13 @@ setup_role() {
     return
   fi
   TEMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d)
-  run "Cloning role repository" git clone --depth=1 "$REPO_URL" "$TEMP_DIR"
+  # run "Cloning role repository" git clone --depth=1 "$REPO_URL" "$TEMP_DIR"
+  run "Cloning role repository (sparse)" bash -c "
+  git --config-env=http.https://github.com/.extraheader=GH_AUTH_HEADER \
+      clone --depth=1 --filter=blob:none --sparse "$REPO_URL" "$TEMP_DIR" &&
+  git -C "$TEMP_DIR" sparse-checkout set "$ROLE"
+"
+
   ROLE_SRC="$TEMP_DIR/$ROLE"
   if [[ ! -d "$ROLE_SRC" ]]; then
     log "WARN: role directory $ROLE_SRC not found after clone, skipping"