Arborist 
git worktree incantations.
Arborist turns the multi-step ritual of cloning repos and hand-typing
git worktree add into a single guided command. Pick your
repositories, and it handles the rest — safely.
Why Arborist
git worktreeA guided workflow tool for multi-repo development — each card below is something you stop doing by hand.
arb new feature/my-change asks which repositories you
want, shows a searchable multi-select picker, and creates a
worktree for the branch in every repo you choose.
$ arb new feature/my-change ? Select repositories › ◉ acme/web-app ◉ acme/api ◯ acme/design-system
Arborist discovers your repos through the GitHub CLI, reuses the
ones already on disk, and clones the ones that aren’t. It uses
your existing gh auth — it never stores tokens.
✓ acme/web-app already cloned ⠿ acme/api cloning… done ✓ fetched latest refs
Every worktree lands in the same place:
<root>/<repo>/<branch>, with branch
names sanitized for the filesystem. No more guessing where a
checkout went.
worktrees/ web-app/feature-my-change/ api/feature-my-change/
Destructive actions show exact paths and ask first. Dirty
worktrees are never silently deleted — arb remove
warns about uncommitted changes and requires confirmation.
! web-app has uncommitted changes ? Remove 2 worktrees? (y/N)
After creating worktrees, Arborist runs your configured setup
commands — pnpm install, uv sync,
whatever your workspace needs — then
arb open drops you into your editor.
▸ setup: pnpm install ✓ $ arb open a1 --cursor ✓ opened in Cursor
Workflows
arbThree commands cover the whole lifecycle of a branch.
Before / after
The same outcome — a worktree per repo for your branch — by hand and with Arborist.
Without Arborist × every repo
$ gh repo clone acme/api && cd api $ git fetch origin $ git worktree add \ ../worktrees/api/feature-my-change \ -b feature/my-change origin/main $ cd ../worktrees/api/feature-my-change $ cp ../../../api/.env . $ pnpm install # …now repeat all of it for web-app and admin
With Arborist all repos at once
$ arb new feature/my-change # pick repos with space + enter ✓ cloned what was missing ✓ created 3 worktrees ✓ copied .env files ▸ setup: pnpm install ✓
FAQ
git worktree? git worktree operates on one repo and makes you manage
paths yourself. Arborist adds the workflow around it: a multi-repo
picker, clone-if-missing, predictable
<root>/<repo>/<branch> paths, copied
.env files, per-repo setup commands, and safe removal —
in one command.
No. All GitHub access goes through the GitHub CLI
(gh auth login). Arborist never asks for, stores, or
logs tokens — and there's no telemetry.
Never automatically. Arborist only runs the setup
commands you wrote in your own trust-checked workspace config —
it doesn't look inside a clone for scripts to run or auto-install
dependencies.
Arborist reuses an existing local branch, tracks a remote one, or creates a new branch from the default branch — whichever applies. If a worktree already exists for the branch, it's skipped safely and the existing path is shown.
Prebuilt binaries for macOS and Linux (amd64 + arm64); Windows builds from source. GitHub is the only provider for now, via the GitHub CLI.
Not without asking. Removal shows the exact paths, requires
confirmation, and never touches a worktree with uncommitted changes
unless you explicitly pass --force.
One command installs the prebuilt binary for your platform (macOS or
Linux) and verifies its checksum. You’ll need
Git and the
GitHub CLI (gh auth login).
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jjacoblee/arborist/main/install.sh | sh
Then: arb init --owner <owner> →
arb new feature/example-change · Read the
full guide · Or grab a binary from the
releases page