gwm_

133github stars40cli subcommands26released versions2,860tests on 3 platforms

What it is

gwm creates one isolated worktree per branch in a single command, following the <type>/#<issue>-<desc> convention, and prepares each one through a bootstrap described in .gwm.toml. One branch is one physical directory: its own target/, its own dependencies, its own local config. Nothing is stashed, nothing is rebuilt on every switch.

It is a single self-contained binary. Worktree operations run on vendored libgit2, so there is no shell-out to parse and no gwq to install first.

Install

# Homebrew
brew install kbrdn1/tap/gwm

# Prebuilt archives, no Rust toolchain
cargo binstall gwm-cli

# From crates.io
cargo install gwm-cli

macOS · Linux · Windows · single self-contained binary · MIT OR Apache-2.0 · eleven install channels →

The interface

$gwmTUI

Five worktrees of one repo, their branch, their state, and the selected one broken out in the sidebar - branch, diff, linked issue, working tree, commits.

Bare gwm opens the list. Everything else is one key away: / filters, 2 focuses the sidebar, n creates, N writes the worktree’s note, L drops into lazygit, O opens it fullscreen at the worktree - a shell by default, your editor or a file browser if [tui.open] says so.

$gwm › :Palette

Or address the same actions by name: : opens the palette, every list-view verb is in it, and every one of them is rebindable.

Every pane is documented in the TUI guide, from the keybindings to the command palette and the theme presets.

What you get

01

One command per worktree

gwm create feat 12 my-feature opens the feat/#12-my-feature branch, its worktree, and runs the repo’s bootstrap. gwm remove takes it all back down, with --dry-run if you want to look first.

$gwm create feat 1 health-check --allow-bootstrapCLI

From an empty repo to a bootstrapped worktree - and the bootstrap says exactly what it did, hook by hook.

02

Bootstrap that belongs to the repo

.gwm.toml describes branch conventions, file copies, regex guards, no-symlink invariants and lifecycle hooks. Everyone who clones gets the same worktrees, and a TOFU trust ledger asks before running anything.

$gwm create feat 4 stripe-gatewayTrust

An untrusted .gwm.toml shows its whole surface - every copy, every command - before a single one runs.

03

The issue and the PR, in the worktree

A branch named feat/#42-… links itself to issue #42 with zero config, gh or glab fetches the live state, and the detected PR lands next to it - title, state, CI. It lives in git config, per branch, so it survives a move and is never committed.

$gwm statusGitHub

Issue auto-linked from the branch name, PR detected, CI running 8/9 - without leaving the list.

04

A TUI when the CLI is not enough

Bare gwm opens a ratatui interface: filter, status sidebar, embedded lazygit and shell overlays, a command palette, and a keymap you can rebind live from the settings panel.

$gwm › zLayout

z cycles the layout auto → side-by-side → stacked, v flips the sidebar left ↔ right. Space marks rows instead, for a batch delete behind one confirm.

05

Built for scripts too

--format=json on list, doctor and path with frozen schemas, plus a JSON-RPC daemon with a subscribe stream. gwm statusline renders a one-line summary for tmux, starship or a zsh prompt.

$gwm doctorCLI

Same checks in --format=json, with a frozen schema and an exit code you can branch on.

06

Fleet chores across worktrees

gwm exec -- cargo test runs a command in every worktree with a per-worktree rollup, and gwm clean reports reclaimable build directories before deleting anything.

07

Which AI agent works where

Claude Code, Codex, opencode and Mistral Vibe are read from the session files they already write to disk - no process scan, Windows included - and land in an AGENT column, in the sidebar, and in an overlay on a. Pin a session by hand when detection can’t know.

$gwm › aAgents

Active under five minutes, idle past it - and a session untouched for thirty days is not even scanned.

Themes

Colours are role-based, not hard-coded: focus, dirty, clean, branch and the rest each take a colour, and four presets ship in the binary.

$preset = "claude-dark"Theme

$preset = "catppuccin"Theme

$preset = "gruvbox"Theme

$preset = "tokyo-night"Theme

Set one in .gwm.toml, override any single role on top of it - see Themes.

In herdr

herdr is a terminal multiplexer, and herdr-plugin-gwm drives gwm from inside it: create, switch, remove, materialise a PR with gwm review, exec and clean across worktrees, plus gwm’s own TUI in a pane.

gwm stays the single source of truth. The plugin never creates a worktree on the herdr side - it adopts what gwm produced and closes the reflection when gwm removes it, so the two can’t drift apart.

herdr plugin install kbrdn1/herdr-plugin-gwm

herdr ≥ 0.7.4 · gwm on PATH · jq · fzf · macOS · Linux · MIT · every action, in detail →

kbrdn1/herdr-plugin-gwmMITherdr plugin that drives gwm for git worktree management - gwm stays the source of truth, herdr adopts.ShellView on GitHub

Where to start

• Install - every channel, from Homebrew to Nix
• First worktree - the first-run path, end to end
• CLI reference - every subcommand, flag and exit code
• .gwm.toml schema - the complete per-repo configuration
• Integrations - GitHub and GitLab linking, doctor, daemon consumers
• Changelog - every released version

The repository

Every page on this site is generated from the docs/ tree inside the repo - the same tree that travels with the code and the releases. The docs and the binary they describe cannot drift apart.

kbrdn1/gwm-cliMIT OR Apache-2.0Git worktree manager for the terminal: CLI + TUI in Rust. Creates the worktree, runs your project setup, links the issue, and shows which AI agent is working where.RustView on GitHub