Rig worktree

Worktree — isolated dev checkout lifecycle

Create / list / remove isolated git worktrees under .claude/rig-worktrees/. Creation produces a worktree that's actually ready to run: fetched from origin, branched from the right base, env files symlinked, dependencies installed. This is a shared bootstrap you can call directly (spikes, ad-hoc branches, parallel experiments) and that implement-style flows and prune/rig-tidy steps can delegate to.

The logic lives in two scripts so the invariants live in one place: .claude/scripts/setup-worktree.sh (create) and .claude/scripts/remove-worktree.sh (teardown). Creation encodes three invariants that bite if skipped — fetch-before-branch (stale local refs silently start you on a pre-merge tip), env symlinks (missing secrets read as flaky/timeout test failures, not "config not found"), and a per-worktree dependency install (installed deps don't carry across worktrees → Cannot find package '...'). Don't reimplement these inline; call the scripts.

Configuration

Reads .rig/config.json (missing keys → defaults):

Key	Default	Used for
vcs.baseRef	origin/main	Default --base the worktree branches from.
vcs.branchConvention	{user}/{ticket}-{slug}	Template when inferring a branch name from a ticket ID.
vcs.defaultBranch	main	The trunk (informational; the main worktree).
runtime.installCommand	derived from packageManager	Passed to the setup script as --install-cmd.
runtime.packageManager	npm	Derives the install command when installCommand is unset (bun→bun install, pnpm→pnpm install, yarn→yarn, npm→npm install, none→skip install).
tracker.ticketPrefix	—	Recognizing a ticket ID (e.g. ABC-521) to slot into the branch template.

If .rig/config.json is absent, run unconfigured: base origin/main, install npm install, branch template {user}/{ticket}-{slug}, and say so.

Subcommands

$ARGUMENTS routes to one of:

• (default — a branch name) create/reuse a worktree. See Create below.
• list — show all worktrees with their branch + PR state. Read-only.
• rm <branch|path> — safely tear a worktree down (skip if dirty).

Create — arguments

$ARGUMENTS is the branch name plus optional flags. The branch is the only required argument.

• <branch> — branch to create/check out, e.g. alice/feat-521-rename or feat-679-observability. The naming convention for ticket work is vcs.branchConvention (default {user}/{ticket}-{slug}).
• --base <ref> — base to branch from. Default vcs.baseRef. For a stacked/integration child, pass origin/<integration-branch>.
• --path <path> — worktree location. Default .claude/rig-worktrees/<last segment of branch> (so alice/feat-521-foo → .claude/rig-worktrees/feat-521-foo).
• --reuse — if the worktree/branch already exists, fetch and hard-reset it to <base> instead of failing. Use this for a "reuse a child worktree" path.
• --no-install — skip the dependency install (rarely wanted; only for a read-only checkout).
• --name <session-name> — background-job/session display name. Delegates to set-session-name.sh (ships with the kit). Claude-Code-only — it renames the FleetView background-job entry so the job list reads as the work (the ticket/epic) instead of the raw prompt; a clean no-op on any other agent.
• --skip-if-prefix <p> — passed through to set-session-name.sh; leave an existing name in place if it starts with <p> (so an EPIC: label set by rig-epic wins over a per-child FEAT:/CHORE: label).

Create — procedure

1. Read .rig/config.json for vcs.baseRef, vcs.branchConvention, and the install command. Derive the install command from runtime.installCommand, else from runtime.packageManager.

2. Infer the branch if not given. If $ARGUMENTS is empty:

   • If the current branch matches the ticket-work convention, offer to reuse / recreate it. Otherwise ask the user for a branch name or ticket ID. Don't guess a branch out of thin air.
   • If given a ticket ID (e.g. <ticketPrefix>521) with no slug, build the branch from vcs.branchConvention, substituting {user} (git user), {ticket} (the lowercased ID), and {slug} (a short kebab from the ticket title — fetch it if you have a tracker, else ask).

3. Run the script from the repo root, passing the resolved base and install command:

   "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.claude/scripts/setup-worktree.sh" \
     <branch> [--base <baseRef>] [--install-cmd "<install cmd>"] [--reuse]
   

   The script prints progress to stderr and the absolute worktree path as the last line of stdout, so capture it:

   WT=$("$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.claude/scripts/setup-worktree.sh" \
     alice/feat-521-rename --base origin/main --install-cmd "bun install" | tail -1)
   

   (The script also honors WORKTREE_BASE_REF and WORKTREE_INSTALL_CMD env vars, so you can export those from config instead of passing flags.)

4. Report back the worktree path, the branch, and the base it was cut from. If the caller is a human running this directly, remind them they can cd "$WT" to work there. If the script failed (e.g. path exists without --reuse), surface the error verbatim and suggest --reuse.

list

Show every worktree with the branch it has checked out and, where one exists, the state of its PR. Read-only — never removes anything.

git worktree list --porcelain

For each non-main worktree, resolve its branch and look up the PR state so the user can see what's safe to prune:

gh pr list --head <branch> --state all --json number,state,title -q '.[0] // empty'

Report a table: worktree path · branch · PR # · PR state (OPEN / MERGED / CLOSED / none) · dirty? (git -C <path> status --porcelain). End with a one-line hint, e.g. "2 worktrees on MERGED branches — /rig-worktree rm <branch> to reclaim them."

rm <branch|path>

Safely tear a worktree down via the shared script. Dirty worktrees are skipped, not removed (a skip is a normal outcome, not an error) — pass --force-dirty to override.

"$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.claude/scripts/remove-worktree.sh" \
  <branch|path> [--force-dirty] [--keep-branch]

The first stdout token is the outcome: removed <path>, skipped <path> (dirty), or absent <arg> (no such worktree). The script deletes the branch too (force -D, since a squash/rebase-merged PR leaves the local branch unmerged); pass --keep-branch to retain it.

Report what was removed, skipped (with the dirty reason), or absent.

Notes

• The scripts resolve the main worktree (first entry of git worktree list) as the source for env files / ignores and as the place to run git worktree commands, so they're safe to invoke from inside another worktree. remove-worktree.sh refuses to remove the main worktree.
• Symlinks (not copies) — editing an env file in the main repo propagates to every worktree. ln -sfn is idempotent, so re-running create with --reuse re-links cleanly.