cbrock84 Branch and worktree workflow
Starting
Work that will take more than one sitting, or that runs alongside other work, gets its own isolated workspace. A worktree gives you a second checkout of the same repository on a different branch — two efforts, two directories, one object store, no stashing.
Branch from the current upstream default, not from whatever is checked out. Branching off a stale local branch is how unrelated commits end up in a review.
While working
- Commit at points where the tree is coherent, not at the end of the day.
- Keep the branch current with its base often. A merge conflict found on day one is a five-minute fix; the same conflict found on day ten is an afternoon.
- One concern per branch. If you find an unrelated bug, note it and leave it.
Finishing
Before proposing the work:
- Rerun the full check the project actually gates on, not the subset you have been running.
- Read your own diff top to bottom. Remove debug output, stray files, and commented-out code.
- Confirm the branch merges cleanly into its base.
Then decide how it integrates:
- Small and coherent — merge as is.
- Several separable concerns — split into stacked branches so each can be reviewed on its merits. A reviewer given three concerns in one diff reviews none of them well.
- Exploratory — keep the useful commits, drop the rest.
Never
- Rewrite history on a branch someone else has checked out. Merge instead; a force-push breaks their working copy.
- Leave a worktree behind after merging — stale worktrees hold references and confuse later work.
- Merge your own change without the checks green on the final commit, not an earlier one.