ia-git-worktree

Manage Git worktrees for isolated parallel development. Use when creating, listing, switching, or cleaning up git worktrees, or when needing isolated branches for concurrent reviews or feature work.

Git worktree manager

Always use the manager script

Never call git worktree add directly -- always use the worktree-manager.sh script.

The script handles critical setup that raw git commands don't:

1. Copies .env, .env.local, .env.test, etc. from main repo
2. Ensures .worktrees is in .gitignore
3. Creates consistent directory structure
4. After creation, install dependencies if detected: package.json → npm install, composer.json → composer install, pyproject.toml → pip install -e ., go.mod → go mod download

Safety Verification

Before creating a worktree, verify the worktree directory is gitignored:

bash

# Verify .worktrees is ignored (should output ".worktrees")
git check-ignore .worktrees || echo "WARNING: .worktrees not in .gitignore"

If not ignored, add it to .gitignore before proceeding. The manager script handles this, but verify when troubleshooting.

Branch from a fresh remote base (manager-script behavior)

This subsection documents the safety logic worktree-manager.sh create implements when branching from the default branch — it is not a manual sequence to run. The script handles the steps; the rationale lives here so users can reason about the behavior.

When creating a worktree's branch from the default branch (main/master), the local base may be ahead of origin/<base> due to another session, worktree, or background task. Branching from local HEAD silently carries those unrelated commits into the new feature branch and the eventual PR — and an unconditional git reset --hard origin/<base> would silently drop the user's intentional unpushed work.

The script's safe sequence:

bash

git fetch --no-tags origin <base>
unpushed=$(git log "origin/$base..$base" --oneline)
if [ -n "$unpushed" ]; then
  # Surface the commit list and prompt: carry forward (base_ref=$base) or leave on local <base> (base_ref=origin/$base)
  ...
fi
git worktree add .worktrees/<name> -b <branch> "$base_ref"

Two failure modes the prompt distinguishes:

• Stale-base contamination — another session advanced local <base> past origin/<base> with unrelated commits. The user wants origin/<base> as the new branch's base; the unpushed commits stay on local <base> for separate handling.
• Forgot-to-branch — the user authored real commits on local <base> intending them for a feature branch. The user wants HEAD as the new branch's base so the commits carry forward.

Local git state alone cannot distinguish these (author email is unreliable in multi-session setups), so the script surfaces the choice rather than guessing. Default fallback when the user can't be reached: branch from origin/<base> and report the unpushed commits in the change summary so the user resolves them deliberately. If the script does not implement this yet, that is a known gap — open an issue rather than working around with raw git worktree add.

After creating a worktree, run the project's test suite to establish a clean baseline. Pre-existing failures in the worktree should be caught before starting new work -- not discovered mid-implementation.

bash

# CORRECT - Always use the script
bash ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/ia-git-worktree/scripts/worktree-manager.sh create feature-name

# WRONG - Never do this directly
git worktree add .worktrees/feature-name -b feature-name main

Commands

Command	Description	Example
create <branch> [from]	Create worktree + branch (default: from main)	...worktree-manager.sh create feature-login
list / ls	List all worktrees with status	...worktree-manager.sh list
switch <name> / go	Switch to existing worktree	...worktree-manager.sh switch feature-login
copy-env <name>	Copy .env files to existing worktree	...worktree-manager.sh copy-env feature-login
cleanup / clean	Interactively remove inactive worktrees	...worktree-manager.sh cleanup

After cleanup, run git worktree prune to remove any orphaned worktree metadata from manually deleted directories.

All commands use: bash ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/ia-git-worktree/scripts/worktree-manager.sh <command>

Environment Detection

Before creating worktrees, detect the execution context:

1. Already in a worktree? Check git rev-parse --show-toplevel against git worktree list. If the current directory is already a linked worktree, skip creation -- work directly in the existing worktree.
2. Codex/sandbox environment? If $CODEX_SANDBOX is set or the repo is at a non-standard path (e.g., /tmp/, /workspace/), worktrees may not be supported. Fall back to regular branch switching.
3. Bare repo? If git rev-parse --is-bare-repository returns true, worktrees are the only way to have a working directory. Adjust paths accordingly.

Adapt the workflow to the detected context rather than failing with a generic error.

Integration with Workflows

/ia-review

1. Check current branch
2. If ALREADY on target branch -> stay there, no worktree needed
3. If DIFFERENT branch -> offer worktree: "Use worktree for isolated review? (y/n)"

/ia-work

Always offer choice:

1. New branch on current worktree (live work)
2. Worktree (parallel work)

Branch Completion

When work in a worktree is done, verify tests pass, then present exactly 4 options:

1. Merge locally -- merge into base branch, delete worktree branch, clean up worktree
2. Push + PR -- push branch, create PR with gh pr create, keep worktree until merged
3. Keep as-is -- leave branch and worktree for later
4. Discard -- requires typing "discard" to confirm. Deletes branch and worktree. No silent discards.

Clean up the worktree directory only for options 1 and 4. For option 2, the worktree stays until the PR merges.

Change Summary

When completing work in a worktree (before merge or PR), output a structured summary:

text

CHANGES MADE:
- src/routes/tasks.ts: Added validation middleware

THINGS I DIDN'T TOUCH (intentionally):
- src/routes/auth.ts: Has similar validation gap but out of scope

POTENTIAL CONCERNS:
- The Zod schema is strict -- rejects extra fields. Confirm this is desired.

The "DIDN'T TOUCH" section prevents reviewers from wondering whether adjacent issues were missed or intentionally deferred.

Hook Safety Under Husky

Installing hooks into .git/hooks/ silently fails on any repo that uses Husky. Husky sets core.hooksPath (typically to .husky/_) and git ignores .git/hooks/ entirely when that config is non-empty. The hook file lands on disk, is executable, is correct, and is dead. Invisible failure until someone asks why the post-merge behavior isn't running.

Detection rule before writing any hook

bash

hooks_path=$(git -C "$repo" config --get core.hooksPath)

• Empty output: write to $(git rev-parse --git-common-dir)/hooks/<name> as usual.
• .husky/_ (or any path containing husky.sh / h trampoline): Husky v9 setup. Write to .husky/<name>; do NOT include the v8-era . "$(dirname "$0")/_/husky.sh" line (v9 prints a deprecation warning if you do).
• Unrecognized non-empty value: refuse to write the hook and surface the path to the user. Silent writes to the wrong location waste debug cycles later.

Worktree-safe hook body

.git/hooks/ lives in the common git dir and runs for every worktree of the clone. A hook installed once fires across all trees. Two rules to stay safe:

1. Resolve the invoking worktree's root inside the hook body with git rev-parse --show-toplevel, not a hardcoded path. Hardcoding means the last install-hooks invocation wins for every worktree.
2. Guard the tool invocation with an existence check on the tool's per-tree state dir. Siblings without your tool's setup must no-op, not spawn a failing background process per git op.

sh

#!/bin/sh
root="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)" || exit 0
[ -d "$root/.my-tool" ] || exit 0
( cd "$root" && my-tool index ) >>"$root/.my-tool/hook.log" 2>&1 &
exit 0

Redirect to a log file inside the tool's state dir, not /dev/null — silent failures produce stale state you only notice hours later.

Local Excludes: .git/info/exclude vs .gitignore

Tooling artifacts (local index dirs, hook helpers, per-developer scratch files) belong in .git/info/exclude, NOT in the tracked .gitignore.

• .gitignore is content — tracked, shared with the team, reviewed in PRs. Adding a personal tooling rule there pollutes a shared file. On foreign repos (upstream projects, third-party clones) the rule either rides into a PR by accident or sits as a dirty working tree forever.
• .git/info/exclude is local — untracked, lives in the common git dir, shared across every worktree of the clone. Same syntax and semantics as .gitignore without the leakage.

Resolving the path correctly under worktrees

Don't hardcode $repo/.git/info/exclude. In a worktree, .git is a file (gitlink), not a directory. Use git itself:

bash

exclude=$(git -C "$repo" rev-parse --git-path info/exclude)

Idempotent append

bash

line="/.my-tool/"
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$exclude")"
grep -qxF "$line" "$exclude" 2>/dev/null || printf '\n# my-tool\n%s\n' "$line" >> "$exclude"

grep -qxF matches the exact line with no regex surprises.

When to break the rule

Only when the artifact is genuinely team-shared and belongs in the repo (build outputs used in CI, generated files, vendored dependencies). If in doubt, ask: "would another contributor benefit from this rule?" If no, exclude locally.

Verify

• git worktree list shows the new entry
• .worktrees directory confirmed in .gitignore
• Dependencies installed in the worktree
• Baseline test suite passes in the worktree

References

• workflow-examples.md - Code review and parallel development workflows
• troubleshooting.md - Common issues, directory structure, how it works
• worktree-manager.sh - The manager script