Why, You Ask?

Because I thought I knew Git. Like really. Branches? Merged. Rebased. Cherry-picked. Heck, I've even force-pushed into production (don't judge me). I've danced the git stash tango more times than I care to admit, and I've rage-quit after realizing I checked out the wrong branch with uncommitted changes.

But then-then-I discovered git worktree.

And everything changed.

The Problem With the "Normal" Way™

Let's say you're working on a feature. You're knee-deep in uncommitted changes, and suddenly you need to switch to another branch to hotfix or review something. What do you do?

• git stash
• git checkout other-branch
• Try to remember what you were doing in your branch later.
• Forget what you stashed and why.
• Cry

This is the standard Git workflow we all just kind of accept. It's chaotic good at best.

Enter: git worktree

What if I told you... you could just check out multiple branches at the same time? Each in its own separate folder. No stash. No backflips. No existential dread.

git worktree is a built-in Git feature that lets you:

• Check out multiple branches at once
• Work on each one in its own directory
• Keep your mental state and filesystem intact

Examples

Create a new worktree for a feature branch

git worktree add ../feature-x origin/feature-x

This checks out the feature-x branch (fetched from origin) into a new directory ../feature-x.

If it's a new feature you start locally, do this:

git worktree add ../feature-x -b feature-x

This creates a new local branch feature-x from your current HEAD (usually main) and checks it out into ../feature-x.

Wow. 🥳 No more "wait lemme stash real quick."

Now you can commit your fix, push it, and go back to your mess later. Like a civilized developer.

List all worktrees

git worktree list

Because you will forget what you spun up after the third coffee.

What's the Catch?

Honestly? Not much. A few things to keep in mind:

You can't check out the same branch twice. Git will yell at you. That's fair.

Deleting a worktree is easy: just git worktree remove ../feature-x (the directory) and that's it.

Why You Need This in Your Life

If you're working on multiple features, doing code reviews locally, fixing stuff mid-feature, or just trying to keep your brain from melting-git worktree is the gift you didn't know Git included.

• No more stash juggling.
• No more "which terminal had which branch again?"
• No more "accidentally committed to main" horror stories.

Just clean, parallel workspaces from a single clone.

Use it. Love it. Regret not learning it sooner. I know I did.