Worktrunk

Worktrunk is an open-source CLI tool built in Rust by Maximilian Roos that simplifies Git worktree management for developers running parallel AI agent workflows. It wraps Git's native worktree feature with ergonomic commands, lifecycle automation, and status aggregation, reducing multi-step worktree operations to single commands. The project is dual-licensed under MIT and Apache-2.0 and is available on GitHub.

What It Is

Worktrunk addresses a specific friction point: Git's built-in git worktree commands require verbose, repetitive syntax for even basic tasks. Creating a worktree, switching to it, and launching an agent requires typing the branch name multiple times and chaining several commands. Worktrunk replaces that with three core commands — wt switch, wt list, and wt remove — that handle the full worktree lifecycle. It is designed specifically for workflows where developers run 5–10+ AI agents (such as Claude Code or Codex) simultaneously, each in its own isolated working directory.

Core Commands and Workflow

The three primary commands cover the most common worktree operations:

• wt switch <branch> — switches to an existing worktree or creates one, with an optional -c flag to create a new branch and -x to run a command (e.g., launch an agent) after switching
• wt list — shows all worktrees with rich status: staged changes, commits ahead/behind, CI status, unpushed commits, and optionally AI-generated branch summaries
• wt remove — removes the worktree directory and deletes the branch, with safety checks for uncommitted changes and unmerged content
• wt merge — squashes, rebases onto the target branch, fast-forward merges, and cleans up in one command

Worktrees are addressed by branch name rather than filesystem path; paths are computed from a configurable template (defaulting to ../<repo>.<branch> as a sibling directory).

Workflow Automation Features

Beyond the core commands, Worktrunk includes a set of quality-of-life features for managing many parallel changes:

• Hooks — run shell commands on lifecycle events: pre-start, post-start, pre-merge, post-merge, etc., for automating dependency installation or dev server startup
• LLM commit messages — generate commit messages from diffs using a configured LLM command
• Interactive picker — browse worktrees with live diff and log previews using a fuzzy finder
• Build cache copying — share target/, node_modules/, and other ignored directories between worktrees to avoid cold starts
• PR checkout — wt switch pr:123 jumps directly to a pull request's branch
• Dev server per worktree — a hash_port template filter assigns each worktree a unique port
• Aliases and per-branch variables — define custom wt <name> subcommands and branch-scoped state for hook templates
• CI status — wt list can display CI status per branch via gh (GitHub) or glab (GitLab)

Installation and Platform Support

Worktrunk installs via Homebrew (macOS and Linux), Cargo, Winget (Windows), Arch Linux's pacman, or Conda/Pixi. Shell integration (wt config shell install) enables directory-changing commands and tab completion across Bash, Zsh, Fish, Nushell, and PowerShell. On Windows, Worktrunk installs as git-wt by default to avoid a conflict with Windows Terminal's wt command. Git 2.43 or newer is required.

Update: v0.74.0

The GitHub repository shows the latest release as v0.74.0, published on August 14, 2026. According to the README, Worktrunk was released at the start of 2026 and has been under active development, with the repository showing 6,635 stars and 239 forks as of late August 2026. The project is maintained by Maximilian Roos and accepts community contributions via GitHub issues. A community extension, worktrunk-sync, adds stacked-branch support as a custom subcommand.