I was trying to copy a directory and used:

Pull from sprite to local: sprite exec -s my-sprite sh -c "tar -czf - /home/sprite/<my_dir>" | tar -xzf - -C ./

Push from local to sprite: COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar -czf - <my_dir> | sprite exec -s my-sprite sh -c "tar -xzf - -C /home/sprite/"