use-worktrees

use-worktrees is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from maxedapps/agent-skills. It costs 73 tokens per session (777 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide for using Git worktrees, which are extra working directories connected to separate Git branches. It defines where to create them, how to sync them, and how to complete their work safely.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when feature or milestone work needs its own checkout, when a worktree must be updated from its target branch, or when finished work needs merging and cleanup.
Why use it?
It keeps feature work isolated so the main checkout is not changed by parallel tasks. It also clarifies branch syncing, setup, deployment separation, and cleanup responsibilities.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/maxedapps/agent-skills/use-worktrees
Any agent
npx skills add maxedapps/agent-skills --skill use-worktrees
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/maxedapps/agent-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for use-worktrees

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/maxedapps/agent-skills/use-worktrees.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/maxedapps/agent-skills/use-worktrees)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/maxedapps/agent-skills/use-worktrees"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/maxedapps/agent-skills/use-worktrees.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 73 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 777 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00073 $0.00777
Opus 5 $0.00036 $0.00388
Sonnet 5 $0.00015 $0.00155
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00078

Measured 4d ago against content hash c1d66d550f8c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

use-worktrees scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 4d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/use-worktrees/SKILL.md · 64 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 64 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Use git worktrees

Location

All worktrees live in ~/worktrees/<project>/<worktree>, where <project> is the repo's directory name and <worktree> matches the branch name:

git worktree add ~/worktrees/course-platform/milestone-4-auth -b milestone-4-auth <target-branch>

Never create worktrees inside the repository or scattered elsewhere. git worktree list shows what exists.

Setup after creating

  • Follow the repository's setup instructions and install dependencies in the worktree; generated or ignored dependency directories are not shared between checkouts.
  • Give deployments from concurrent worktrees a dedicated stage/environment. Never let parallel checkouts mutate the same deployment state.
  • For delegated work, also follow use-subagents; the parent agent owns all worktree creation, integration, and cleanup.

Working in the worktree

  • All work for the feature happens on the worktree's branch, committed incrementally. The main checkout stays untouched and free for parallel work.
  • Sync direction during work is always target branch → worktree branch (git merge <target-branch> inside the worktree) at natural checkpoints, and mandatorily before touching anything that parallel work may have changed. Never rebase or rewrite shared branches.
  • After every sync, run the repository's full check suite.
  • Sync conflict rules:
    • Sequential migrations: if the target branch took a number this branch also uses, renumber this branch's migration to the next free slot. Check this on every sync even without a textual conflict.
    • Lockfile conflicts: preserve both sides' manifest/workspace changes, then regenerate with the repository's package manager. Never hand-edit a generated lockfile.
    • Resolve everything else by reading both sides; the combined test suites are the arbiter.

Merging back

Never merge a worktree branch back into master (or any target branch) automatically. Review cycles happen in the worktree first; the merge happens only when the user explicitly asks for it. When they do:

Read the full file on GitHub · 64 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 64 lines · 73 tokens per session scan A c1d66d550f8c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

use-worktrees is a skill published in the GitHub repository maxedapps/agent-skills (58 stars, last pushed 19d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 73 tokens to every session and 777 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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