The directory from which you type the sftp command is the local working directory and thus the source directory for this operation.
See How to Open and Close an sftp Connection to a Remote System.
sftp> cd target-directory
sftp> ls -l target-directory
Metacharacters may be used with the get command.
sftp> put filename
sftp> bye
In this example, the user opens an sftp connection to the system pluto, and uses the put command to copy a file from their system to the /tmp directory on system pluto.
$ cd /tmp $ sftp pluto Password: xxx sftp> cd /tmp sftp> put filef uploading filef to /tmp/filef filef 100% 325 0.3KB/s 00:00 sftp> ls filea filef files sftp> bye