Git Worktrees for ZCode

Every thread gets its own worktree — automatically. Git Worktrees gives each new ZCode thread an isolated checkout of your repo, so tasks run in parallel without stashing, branch juggling, or overwriting each other. Start chatting; you are already isolated.

/worktree:new fix-auth "Refactor the login flow"   ← worktree + background agent
/worktree                                          ← dashboard: branches, sizes, agents
/worktree:end fix-auth                             ← commit everything, remove cleanly

Why you'll want it

• Zero setup. Auto-session mode (on by default) hands every new thread its own worktree the moment it starts — and resuming a thread returns to the same one. No commands needed, ever.
• Never lose work. Removal of dirty worktrees, running agents, or unmerged branches is refused without force — and even then, uncommitted changes are snapshotted first (tracked diff + untracked files) to a restorable directory. Branches are kept by default.
• Your environment travels with you. .env and friends (anything gitignored and listed in .worktreeinclude) are carried into new worktrees; setupCommands (pnpm install, docker compose up -d) run automatically.
• It stays out of your way. Worktrees live in a central store (~/.zcode/worktrees), your repos stay pristine, and a retention sweep keeps disk usage bounded. Nothing is ever deleted silently.

Install

1. In ZCode Desktop, open Settings → Plugin Management and click Add marketplace.

2. Paste the repo — a GitHub owner/repo slug or a full Git URL both work:

   agallardol/zcode-git-worktrees
   

3. Install Git Worktrees from the catalog.

4. Open any git repo and start a thread — you're already isolated. Type /worktree for the dashboard.

Requirements: ZCode ≥ 3.8.1, node ≥ 18 on PATH, git.

If /worktree doesn't appear: run node --version in a terminal (the MCP server needs node), confirm the plugin is enabled under Installed, and restart ZCode if you installed it while the app was open.

The commands

Command	What it does
/worktree	Dashboard — branch, dirty state, size, activity, running agents
/worktree:new [name] [task…]	Create a worktree (friendly auto-name if omitted); with a task, spawns a background agent that works inside it
/worktree:status <name>	Diff stat, unpushed commits, snapshots
/worktree:remove <name>	Safe removal — snapshots uncommitted work first
/worktree:cleanup	Retention sweep (dry-run first; skips anything dirty/locked/active)
/worktree:pr <number|url>	Check out a GitHub PR into a review worktree
/worktree:end [name]	End-of-task: commit everything with a real message, remove, keep branch
/worktree:auto	Per-session automatic worktrees — see below

Behind them: nine MCP tools (worktrees_create, worktrees_list, worktrees_status, worktrees_remove, worktrees_cleanup, worktrees_prune, worktrees_snapshot, worktrees_set_task, worktrees_auto_session), a model-facing skill, and hooks — so the agent can use worktrees on its own when you ask for parallel or isolated work.

Auto-session worktrees (on by default)

Every new session in a repo's main checkout gets its own worktree (zcode/sess-…); resuming returns to the same one, and file edits to the main checkout are blocked and redirected to the session worktree. Toggle it in Settings → Plugins → Git Worktrees or with /worktree:auto (most recent change wins). A repo can always opt out:

// .zcode/worktree.json in the repo
{ "autoSession": false }

Repo-side configuration (optional)

.worktreeinclude — gitignore-style patterns; only files that are also gitignored are carried into new worktrees (tracked files are never duplicated):

.env
config/secrets.json

.zcode/worktree.json — explicit files, lifecycle hooks, and the auto-session override:

{
  "autoSession": true,
  "copyFiles": [".env.local"],
  "setupCommands": ["pnpm install"],
  "preRemoveCommands": ["docker compose down"]
}

Plugin settings (Settings → Plugins → Git Worktrees): worktree root, default base (fresh = origin/HEAD with offline fallback, or head), max age days (14), max worktrees per project (15).

Safety model

• Nothing escapes the store — names validated for path and git-ref safety (traversal, .lock, case-twin, unicode tricks all rejected), full paths guarded against symlinks, store paths canonicalized; a failed git worktree add rolls back its branch.
• Concurrency-safe — mutations serialized by an in-process queue plus a cross-process lockfile; parallel creates never lose state.
• Self-healing — corrupt state quarantined and rebuilt, worktrees re-adopted from git, out-of-band deletions reconciled by prune/cleanup.
• No execution from untrusted repos — setupCommands / preRemoveCommands run only on worktrees you create explicitly. Auto-session creates never execute repo-provided commands: opening a cloned repo is never code execution. Every git call goes through execFile; the only shell execution is lifecycle commands you opted into.

Compared to the tools that inspired it: PR-number checkouts and .worktreeinclude semantics come from Claude Code, snapshot-before-delete and the central store from Codex, bounded retention from Cursor/Codex — plus background-agent task orchestration and hard edit isolation, which none of them expose to plugins.

Tests

npm test   # 129 tests: 80 unit (validators, state, carry-over, hooks, edit guard)
           #        + 13 integration (real MCP stdio JSON-RPC + protocol edges)
           #        + 36 adversarial & security (hostile names, races, corrupt
           #           state, out-of-band damage, exploit regressions)

CI runs the suite on macOS and Linux (Node 20 and 22).

The suites run entirely against local fixtures — no network, no model calls.

Notes & limitations

• Auto-session isolation is soft for commands, hard for edits: Write/Edit tools are blocked against the main checkout by a PreToolUse guard; Bash is guided by injected context, not statically policed.
• ZCode has no session-end event, so nothing is auto-committed or deleted at exit — /worktree:end is the explicit finish line, and the retention sweep collects what's left idle.
• One-session lag on Settings changes for auto-session (hooks read a marker the MCP server syncs at session start).

License

MIT © Alfredo Gallardo