Git Worktrees Changed My Branching Workflow

The Problem

I’d be deep into a feature branch when a critical bug comes in. The stash-switch-fix-switch-unstash dance was getting old:

git stash
git checkout main
git checkout -b hotfix/urgent-thing
# fix, commit, push
git checkout feature/my-thing
git stash pop
# hope nothing conflicts

The Solution

git worktree add ../project-hotfix main
cd ../project-hotfix
git checkout -b hotfix/urgent-thing
# fix, commit, push
cd ../project
git worktree remove ../project-hotfix

Why It Works

Git worktrees let you check out multiple branches into separate directories simultaneously. Each worktree shares the same .git history but has its own working directory.

My structure now:

~/code/
  project/           # main development
  project-hotfix/    # temporary for fixes
  project-review/    # for reviewing PRs

No stashing. No context switching. Each branch lives in its own space.

The only catch: you can’t have the same branch checked out in multiple worktrees. But that’s rarely a problem in practice.

I resisted learning this for years because it seemed complicated. It’s not. Should have done it sooner.