Recipes

Quick worktree for a hotfix

wt add hotfix-login-crash --from main
cd "$(wt cd hotfix)"
# make changes, then:
wt remove hotfix-login-crash

Worktree with a custom path

wt add feat-payments --path ~/sandbox/payments

Skip deps for a quick code review

wt add review/pr-482 --existing --no-deps --no-env
cd "$(wt cd pr-482)"

Re-run setup after a config change

# You updated .worktreerc — re-apply to an existing worktree
wt setup --force ../myapp-feat-billing
 
# Clean reinstall (removes node_modules and .venv)
wt setup --clean --force ../myapp-feat-billing

Navigate between worktrees

# Exact match
cd "$(wt cd feat-billing)"
 
# Partial match — resolves unambiguously
cd "$(wt cd billing)"
 
# Shell function shorthand (add to ~/.zshrc)
wtcd() { cd "$(wt cd "$1")" }
wtcd billing

Clean up all worktrees

# List everything first
wt list
 
# Remove one by one (partial names work)
wt remove billing
wt remove payments

Preview before creating

# See exactly what wt add would do, without making changes
wt add feat-billing --dry-run

Monorepo with custom install commands

For monorepos or non-standard setups, define custom install steps in .worktreerc:

[deps.custom]
commands = [
    "bun install --frozen-lockfile",
    "cd packages/api && uv venv .venv && uv pip install -e '.[dev]'",
    "bun run build:shared",
]

Team-shared worktreerc

Commit .worktreerc so everyone gets the same setup:

wt init
git add .worktreerc
git commit -m 'chore: add worktreerc'

Every developer who runs wt add will get the same dependency installation, env file setup, and hook commands automatically.

Branch prefix for personal forks

Set a global branch prefix so all your branches are namespaced:

# ~/.config/wt/config.toml
[user]
branch_prefix = "yourname"

Now wt add feat-billing creates yourname/feat-billing.

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