A Git feature I should've met sooner!

2025-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

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.

svnscha - git