workstreams

README

workstreams

A CLI tool for creating and managing isolated git working environments based on git worktrees. Each workstream is a separate directory with its own shell session, enabling tools like Claude Code to work on multiple branches in parallel without interference.

The Problem

When working with AI coding assistants (or simply juggling multiple features), you often need multiple, completely isolated copies of a repository — each on a different branch, each with its own terminal session. Switching branches in a single directory disrupts uncommitted work and forces tools to reload context.

workstreams solves this by wrapping git worktrees with a single command that creates the isolated directory and drops you into a shell inside it.

Features

• Instant isolation — one command creates a worktree and opens a shell in it
• Branch flexibility — creates a new branch if it does not exist, uses an existing one otherwise
• Zero state — all state is stored by git itself (git worktree list); no daemon or config database
• Environment injection — WORKSTREAM_BRANCH and WORKSTREAM_PATH are set in the shell so prompts and tools know their context
• Co-located worktrees — stored at .worktrees/<branch>/ inside the repository, easy to find and gitignored

Installation

Download pre-built binary (recommended)

Download the latest release for your platform from the GitHub Releases page, extract the archive, and move the binary to a directory on your PATH:

# Example for Linux amd64
tar -xzf workstreams_linux_amd64.tar.gz
mv workstreams /usr/local/bin/

Available platforms: linux_amd64, linux_arm64, darwin_amd64, darwin_arm64, windows_amd64.

Via Go install

go install github.com/ChristophBe/workstreams@latest

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/ChristophBe/workstreams.git
cd workstreams
make install

Releasing

Create and push a version tag to trigger the release pipeline:

make tag VERSION=v1.2.3

This runs tests and lint in CI before building multi-platform binaries and publishing them to GitHub Releases.

Usage

Create a new workstream

workstreams new feature/my-feature

Creates a worktree at .worktrees/feature/my-feature/, creates the branch if it does not exist, and opens an interactive shell inside. Type exit to return to your original shell. The worktree persists until you explicitly remove it.

List active workstreams

workstreams list
# or
workstreams ls

Output:

BRANCH              PATH                                           TYPE
------              ----                                           ----
main                /path/to/repo                                  main
feature/my-feature  /path/to/repo/.worktrees/feature/my-feature    workstream

Re-open a shell in an existing workstream

workstreams shell feature/my-feature

Remove a workstream

workstreams remove feature/my-feature
# or
workstreams rm feature/my-feature

Removes the worktree directory. The git branch is preserved so you can re-create the workstream later.

How It Works

workstreams new <branch> is equivalent to:

git worktree add -b <branch> .worktrees/<branch>/   # (or without -b if branch exists)
WORKSTREAM_BRANCH=<branch> WORKSTREAM_PATH=.worktrees/<branch>/ exec $SHELL

The shell is started with syscall.Exec, which replaces the workstreams process. This means the shell is a first-class process — signals, job control, and exit all behave as expected.

Environment Variables

Variables available inside every workstream shell:

Variable	Value
WORKSTREAM_BRANCH	Branch name (e.g. feature/my-feature)
WORKSTREAM_PATH	Absolute path to the worktree directory

You can use these in your shell prompt or in tool configuration to identify the active workstream.

Parallel Usage with Claude Code

Open a terminal per feature branch:

# Terminal 1
workstreams new feature/auth-refactor

# Terminal 2
workstreams new feature/new-dashboard

# Each Claude Code session works in its own isolated directory
# with no branch conflicts or file-lock issues

Parallelizing from inside a single agent session

For cases where you'd rather not juggle terminals yourself, workstreams skill installs instructions that teach a coding agent to create workstreams non-interactively and work through them for parallel-style development:

workstreams skill                                    # install every supported target, locally
workstreams skill --target claude                    # just the Claude Code skill
workstreams skill --scope global --target claude     # available in every project, not just this repo

Supported targets — pass a comma-separated list via --target, or omit it for all:

Target	What it installs
claude	A Claude Code skill (.claude/skills/workstreams-parallel/) that also dispatches background subagents per workstream, all from one session
agents-md	A section in AGENTS.md, read by Codex CLI and other agentic tools
cursor	A Cursor project rule (.cursor/rules/)
copilot	A section in .github/copilot-instructions.md

--scope local (the default) installs into the current repository; --scope global installs into your home directory so it applies to every project (Cursor and Copilot have no global location, so they're skipped for --scope global). See workstreams skill --help for details, or docs/features.md for the full spec.

Once installed, ask the agent to parallelize your work, e.g. "spin up workstreams for the auth refactor and the new dashboard and work on them in parallel."

Shell Completion

workstreams supports tab-completion for branch names and active workstreams. Quick setup:

# Bash
workstreams completion bash >> ~/.bashrc

# Zsh
mkdir -p ~/.zsh/completions
workstreams completion zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_workstreams

# Fish
workstreams completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/workstreams.fish

After restarting your shell, workstreams shell <TAB> and workstreams remove <TAB> will suggest active workstreams, and workstreams new <TAB> will suggest local branches.

See docs/shell-completion.md for detailed setup instructions per shell, including Oh My Zsh and notes on Bash versions.

See Also

• Feature documentation — detailed feature spec, flags, and limitations
• Shell completion — per-shell setup instructions
• Contributing guide — coding guidelines and development workflow
• git worktree — the underlying git mechanism

Documentation

Overview

Copyright © 2026 Christoph Becker

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.