Building a Git Worktree Tool for Claude Code

Spent some time today building a CLI tool to make running multiple Claude Code sessions easier.

The problem

When working on complex features, I often want to:

1. Keep working on the main branch
2. Spin up a separate Claude session for a bug fix
3. Maybe start another one for a quick experiment

Git worktrees are perfect for this - separate directories, same repo. But the manual workflow was annoying:

git worktree add .worktrees/feat-auth -b feat-auth
cd .worktrees/feat-auth
claude --dangerously-skip-permissions

Three commands every time. And I kept forgetting that --dangerously-skip-permissions flag.

What I built

A bash script called claude-worktree that does everything in one command:

# Create worktree + start Claude (permissions skipped by default)
claude-worktree create -n feat-auth

# Start with a prompt
claude-worktree create -n fix-bug -p "Fix the null pointer bug in user service"

# If you actually want permission checks
claude-worktree create -n experiment --with-permissions

# Just create the worktree, don't start Claude
claude-worktree create -n test-branch --no-run

The key decision: default to skipping permissions. When I’m spinning up a parallel session, I almost always want it to just work without interruption.

Implementation highlights

The script parses git worktree list --porcelain output for reliable worktree info:

read_worktrees_porcelain() {
  local out
  out="$(git worktree list --porcelain)"

  WORKTREE_PATHS=()
  WORKTREE_BRANCHREFS=()

  local path="" branch=""
  while IFS= read -r line; do
    if [[ "$line" == worktree\ * ]]; then
      if [[ -n "$path" ]]; then
        WORKTREE_PATHS+=("$path")
        WORKTREE_BRANCHREFS+=("$branch")
      fi
      path="${line#worktree }"
      branch=""
    elif [[ "$line" == branch\ * ]]; then
      branch="${line#branch }"
    fi
  done <<< "$out"
  # ...
}

Safety features:

• Won’t delete the main worktree (repo root)
• Asks before deleting local branches
• Handles existing vs new branches automatically

Managing it with dotfiles

Put the script in my claude-dotfiles repo under scripts/:

claude-dotfiles/
├── scripts/
│   └── claude-worktree    # the tool
├── skills/
│   └── worktree/          # Claude /worktree skill
├── install.sh             # updated to handle scripts/
└── ...

The install script creates symlinks to ~/.local/bin/:

for script in "$DOTFILES_DIR/scripts"/*; do
  if [ -f "$script" ]; then
    script_name=$(basename "$script")
    ln -sf "$script" "$HOME/.local/bin/$script_name"
    chmod +x "$script"
  fi
done

Now claude-worktree is available globally, and updates to the dotfiles repo automatically apply.

Usage

# List current worktrees
claude-worktree list

# Output:
# IDX  MAIN   PATH                                          BRANCH
# 0    YES    /Users/dev/myproject                          main
# 1    NO     /Users/dev/myproject/.worktrees/feat-map      feat-map

# Create and enter new worktree
claude-worktree create -n feat-api

# Clean up when done
claude-worktree remove  # interactive selection

Gotchas

Had to use "$CLAUDE_CMD" $CLAUDE_OPTS without quotes around $CLAUDE_OPTS - otherwise an empty string becomes an empty argument and claude complains about unknown option "".

Also, the shebang needs to be #!/usr/bin/env bash not #!/bin/bash for portability.