wt

A thin shell wrapper for git worktree with tab completion.

Install

Clone the repo (or just download wt.sh) to wherever you'd like, ~/.wt-cli is an example of where you could put it:

git clone https://github.com/stilliard/wt-cli.git ~/.wt-cli

Then add to your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc, adjusting the path to match where you saved it:

source ~/.wt-cli/wt.sh

Then reload your shell (source ~/.zshrc) or open a new terminal.

Usage

wt                        # list all worktrees
wt <name>                 # cd into worktree by branch name
wt mk <branch>            # create worktree as sibling of current repo and cd into it
wt mk <branch> <path>     # create worktree at a specific path and cd into it
wt rm <name>              # remove a worktree
wt prune                  # prune stale worktree refs
wt ls                     # list worktrees (same as bare wt)
wt cd <name>              # explicit cd (same as wt <name>)
wt help                   # show usage

Aliases: add → mk, remove → rm, list → ls

Tab completion works for subcommands and branch names in both bash and zsh.

Hooks

Place executable scripts in .wt-hooks/<event> at your repo root to run custom logic around worktree operations.

Event	When	Runs in
pre-mk	Before creating a worktree (non-zero exit aborts)	Original repo
post-mk	After creating a worktree	New worktree
pre-rm	Before removing a worktree (non-zero exit aborts)	Worktree being removed
post-rm	After removing a worktree	Original repo

Each hook receives the branch name and path via env vars WT_BRANCH and WT_PATH. The standard OLDPWD is also available, pointing to the directory you were in before the worktree was created.

Example - copy env and install dependencies after creating a worktree:

#!/bin/sh
# .wt-hooks/post-mk  (runs inside the new worktree)
cp "$OLDPWD/.env" .env
npm install

chmod +x .wt-hooks/post-mk

Ad-hoc hooks for testing

wt mk and wt rm also accept --pre-hook PATH and --post-hook PATH flags to run a single script for one invocation, without committing it to .wt-hooks/. The script receives the same WT_BRANCH / WT_PATH env vars; a failing --pre-hook aborts the operation.

wt mk feature-x --post-hook ./my-setup.sh
wt rm feature-x --pre-hook  ./my-teardown.sh

Copying gitignored files into new worktrees

A new worktree is a fresh checkout, so untracked files like .env are not present in it. List the paths you want carried over in a .worktreeinclude file at your repo root, using .gitignore syntax:

# .worktreeinclude
.env
.env.local
.claude/settings.local.json

On wt mk, any file that matches a pattern and is gitignored is copied into the new worktree. Tracked files are never duplicated. This is the same file Claude Code uses for claude --worktree, so one config serves both tools.

Requirements

• git 2.5+
• bash or zsh

Tests

Tests use bats-core. Install it, then:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install bats

# macOS
brew install bats-core

bats test/wt.bats

License

MIT