How to clone from gitlab not a clean directory, but with the files themselves?

Question

git

Hello. I study GIT and work with it. I can't understand the end of the tutorial. https://githowto.com
In the git, you can create an empty clean directory that will not contain working files and so on, but in fact it will have everything that is needed and from which it will be possible to extract data and work. The --bare command helps to make such a clean clone.
The question arose, how can I download to the machine not a clean git directory, but with files. And then I made a clean git directory, uploaded it to gitlab.com, and when I clone it from gitlab.com to my working machine, the clone is clean without working files, there is nothing to change there. How can I get these files? Maybe you need to clone differently, not just git clone [link], but add some variables.