Simon Willison’s Weblog

6th March 2024 - Link Blog

How I use git worktrees (via) TIL about worktrees, a Git feature that lets you have multiple repository branches checked out to separate directories at the same time.

The default UI for them is a little unergonomic (classic Git) but Bill Mill here shares a neat utility script for managing them in a more convenient way.

One particularly neat trick: Bill’s “worktree” Bash script checks for a node_modules folder and, if one exists, duplicates it to the new directory using copy-on-write, saving you from having to run yet another lengthy “npm install”.