Worktree Devproxy

worktree-devproxy

One shared Traefik + one compose stack per git worktree. Each instance is reachable at http://<worktree>.<repo>.localhost:8000; a laptop reaches it through a single SSH tunnel. Nothing else touches the host network.

laptop browser → SSH tunnel (:8000) → Traefik (127.0.0.1 only)
              → Host-header match → per-worktree compose stack (devproxy network)

Invariants (don't trade these away when adapting):

1. No host ports except Traefik's own 127.0.0.1:8000 (web) and 127.0.0.1:8080 (dashboard/API). Everything else flows over the shared external docker network devproxy.
2. Routing is Host-header only — *.localhost resolves to loopback by OS convention, so there is no DNS, no TLS, and no port allocation table.
3. Worktree isolation is COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME (set by .envrc via direnv): independent networks, volumes, and container names per worktree.

One-time machine setup

Prerequisites: docker (with compose plugin), git, direnv (hook it into the shell rc).

1. Copy references/dev-proxy.docker-compose.yml to ~/dev-proxy/docker-compose.yml, mkdir -p ~/dev-proxy/dynamic, and docker compose up -d (run with COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=dev-proxy or from a direnv-free shell — a stray project name from another repo's .envrc creates a second Traefik that loses the :8000 bind race). Two flags in it are load-bearing, learned the hard way:
   • image: traefik:v3 (not an old pin) — Traefik ≤ v3.3 hardcodes Docker API 1.24, which Docker Engine 29+ rejects outright.
   • --providers.docker.network=devproxy — app containers sit on [default, devproxy]; without the pin Traefik dials the default network's IP it can't reach and every request 504s.
2. Install scripts/wt and scripts/devproxy-route to ~/bin/, chmod +x, make sure ~/bin is on PATH.
3. Verify: curl -s --noproxy '*' localhost:8080/api/version returns the Traefik version; curl localhost:8000 returns 404 (no routes yet — correct).

Onboarding a repo

Four pieces per repo, all committed — worktrees are created from HEAD, so uncommitted setup files silently don't propagate and wt new breaks.

1. .envrc at the repo root:

   export REPO=<repo-dir-name>
   export WORKTREE=$(basename "$PWD" | tr '/_.' '-')
   export COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME="${REPO}-${WORKTREE}"
   # Main checkout (dir name == repo) sits at the apex; worktrees are
   # subdomains: <repo>.localhost vs feat-x.<repo>.localhost.
   if [ "$WORKTREE" = "$REPO" ]; then
       export DEV_HOST="${REPO}.localhost"
   else
       export DEV_HOST="${WORKTREE}.${REPO}.localhost"
   fi
   

   Then direnv allow. (Don't apex-special-case COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME the same way on an already-onboarded repo — renaming the project orphans its existing volumes, including the database.)

2. docker-compose.yml — the HTTP-serving service gets Traefik labels and no ports: section; the file joins the external network:

   services:
     web:
       labels:
         - traefik.enable=true
         - traefik.http.routers.${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME}.rule=Host(`${DEV_HOST}`)
         - traefik.http.services.${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME}.loadbalancer.server.port=<container port>
       networks: [default, devproxy]
   
   networks:
     devproxy:
       external: true
   

   Internal services (db, redis) keep only the default network and lose any host-port publishing too. Name volumes with plain aliases (no explicit name:) so compose prefixes them per project — that is the per-worktree data isolation. Give an explicit shared name: only to caches where cross-worktree reuse is the point (cargo registry, sccache, pnpm store).

3. Server must bind 0.0.0.0 inside the container, and framework Host-checking must admit .localhost:

   • Vite: server.allowedHosts: ['.localhost']; gate host on an env var (process.env.VITE_HOST ?? 'localhost') so bare host-side pnpm dev is unchanged; if HMR runs through the proxy, wire server.hmr.clientPort from an env var and set it to 8000 in compose.
   • Next.js: dev command gets -H 0.0.0.0.
   • Multi-process stacks (API + frontend): either run them in one container so existing 127.0.0.1 proxy targets keep working, or keep an internal reverse proxy (Caddy/nginx) as the labeled service.
   • Rust/Go binaries: pass --host 0.0.0.0 or the bind env var.

4. CLAUDE.md — append a section telling agents the instance is at http://$DEV_HOST:8000 and verifiable with curl -s -H "Host: $DEV_HOST" localhost:8000.

Useful patterns from onboarded repos: single-container pnpm monorepo (arbor), build-then-serve with a one-shot builder service + service_completed_successfully dependency (duhem), full multi-service stack with an internal Caddy edge carrying the Traefik labels (onsager).

Daily usage

wt new feat/xyz   # run inside the repo → branch + worktree + stack up
                  # → http://feat-xyz.<repo>.localhost:8000
wt rm  feat/xyz   # compose down -v + remove worktree (chown fallback built in)
wt ls             # all worktree containers across repos

Worktrees land at <repo-parent>/<repo>-wt/<name>, sibling to the repo.

Laptop side, one tunnel serves every repo and worktree:

Host devbox
    HostName <remote>
    LocalForward 8000 127.0.0.1:8000
    LocalForward 8080 127.0.0.1:8080

Host-run stacks (no containers)

When the containerized per-worktree stack is too slow as the primary loop (first build compiles the whole workspace into container-private volumes), a repo's native dev runner (just dev, pnpm dev, …) can join the same routing via Traefik's file provider — already enabled by the machine setup above. Pattern (reference implementation: onsager just dev, onsager-ai/onsager#579):

1. Auto-allocate ports, canonical-first: try the service's usual port, fall back to a random free one so parallel worktree stacks never collide. Bash picker:

   pick_port() {
     local p=$1
     while (exec 3<>"/dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/$p") 2>/dev/null; do
       p=$(( (RANDOM % 20000) + 20000 ))
     done
     echo "$p"
   }
   

2. Register the front door only: devproxy-route up <port> writes ~/dev-proxy/dynamic/$COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME.yml mapping Host($DEV_HOST) → http://host.docker.internal:<port>. Point it at the one process that fronts the rest (e.g. Vite with a dev proxy for /api); backends only need to be reachable by that process, not by Traefik. devproxy-route down in the runner's EXIT trap.

3. Same framework rules as containers: the fronting process must bind 0.0.0.0 (host-gateway traffic arrives on a non-loopback interface), allow .localhost hosts, and aim its HMR websocket at the proxy port (clientPort: 8000) when reached through Traefik.

Containerized (wt new) and host-run stacks coexist behind one Traefik — routing is per-hostname, so each worktree independently picks whichever mode fits. Don't run both modes for the same worktree at once: two routers with an identical Host rule is a coin-flip.

Troubleshooting