Git Worktrees: Work on Several Branches at Once

Switching branches means stashing work, waiting for rebuilds and losing your place. A worktree is an extra working directory attached to the same repository, so different branches can be checked out at the same time.

Basic commands

# Check out an existing branch in a sibling folder
git worktree add ../shop-review feature/coupons

# Create a new branch in a new worktree
git worktree add -b hotfix/vat-rounding ../shop-hotfix main

git worktree list
git worktree remove ../shop-review
git worktree prune             # clean up references to deleted folders

All worktrees share one .git object store, so they're cheap: no second clone, and commits made in one are immediately visible to the others.

Great uses

• Review a pull request while your own work stays untouched.
• Urgent hotfix without stashing a half-finished feature.
• Long-running tasks: run a slow test suite or build in one worktree while you keep coding in another.
• Comparing behaviour between two versions side by side.
• Parallel AI coding agents: give each agent its own worktree and branch, so they can edit files at the same time without stepping on each other.

Things to know

• The same branch can't be checked out in two worktrees at once.
• Each worktree needs its own dependencies (node_modules, virtual environments) and build output.
• Untracked files like .env aren't copied; set them up per worktree.
• Delete worktrees with git worktree remove rather than rm -rf, or run git worktree prune afterwards.