diff --git a/man/repo-init.1 b/man/repo-init.1
index 374117527..55b885c4c 100644
--- a/man/repo-init.1
+++ b/man/repo-init.1
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 .\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man.
-.TH REPO "1" "September 2024" "repo init" "Repo Manual"
+.TH REPO "1" "December 2025" "repo init" "Repo Manual"
 .SH NAME
 repo \- repo init - manual page for repo init
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ create a git checkout of the manifest repo
 .TP
 \fB\-\-manifest\-depth\fR=\fI\,DEPTH\/\fR
 create a shallow clone of the manifest repo with given
-depth (0 for full clone); see git clone (default: 0)
+depth (0 for full clone); see git clone (default: 1)
 .SS Manifest (only) checkout options:
 .TP
 \fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-current\-branch\fR
diff --git a/repo b/repo
index ee3a5b79b..43d30cc2e 100755
--- a/repo
+++ b/repo
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ if not REPO_REV:
 BUG_URL = "https://issues.gerritcodereview.com/issues/new?component=1370071"
 
 # increment this whenever we make important changes to this script
-VERSION = (2, 54)
+VERSION = (2, 61)
 
 # increment this if the MAINTAINER_KEYS block is modified
 KEYRING_VERSION = (2, 3)
@@ -325,7 +325,7 @@ def InitParser(parser):
     group.add_option(
         "--manifest-depth",
         type="int",
-        default=0,
+        default=1,
         metavar="DEPTH",
         help="create a shallow clone of the manifest repo with "
         "given depth (0 for full clone); see git clone "