worktree

Worktree Management Skill

Every autoimprove experiment runs in an isolated git worktree — a separate directory linked to the same repo but on its own branch. The main working directory is never modified. Only winning experiments get merged back.

your-project/          ← main worktree (never touched during experiments)
.claude/autoimprove/worktrees/       ← experiment worktrees live here
  experiment-001/      ← branch: autoimprove/experiment-001
  experiment-002/      ← branch: autoimprove/experiment-002

---

Setup worktree environment

Run once before the first experiment in a session:

# 1. Make sure we're on a clean main branch
git status
git branch --show-current

# 2. Create the worktree container directory (gitignored)
mkdir -p .claude/autoimprove/worktrees

# 3. Add it to .gitignore if not already there
grep -q ".claude/autoimprove/worktrees" .gitignore 2>/dev/null || echo ".claude/autoimprove/worktrees" >> .gitignore

# 4. Record the base commit so all experiments branch from the same point
BASE_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
echo "Base commit: $BASE_COMMIT"

---

Create a new experiment worktree

Run at the start of each iteration:

EXPERIMENT_ID=$(printf "%03d" $ITERATION_NUMBER)
BRANCH="autoimprove/experiment-$EXPERIMENT_ID"
WORKTREE_PATH=".claude/autoimprove/worktrees/experiment-$EXPERIMENT_ID"

# Create a new branch and worktree from current HEAD
git worktree add -b "$BRANCH" "$WORKTREE_PATH"

echo "Created worktree: $WORKTREE_PATH"
echo "Branch: $BRANCH"

Now switch all subsequent file edits and commands to run inside $WORKTREE_PATH. The main directory is untouched.

---

Run measurement in a worktree

All measurement commands must be run from inside the worktree path:

cd .claude/autoimprove/worktrees/experiment-$EXPERIMENT_ID

# Run the measurement suite from .claude/autoimprove/config.md
# (same commands, different working directory)

---

Winning experiment — merge back to main

If AFTER score > BEFORE score: