git-mate

A Git CLI extension for my personal workflow around git worktrees.

Built for Bash/Zsh in Linux. Likely works on macOS too. Windows/Powershell is not supported, WSL should work fine though.

Commands

Note: Some commands automatically cd into a different directory. This is only supported if you configure shell integration.

mate new <branch>

Creates a new branch from the default branch (e.g. main) and switches to it.

Choose to either check the branch out in the main worktree, or create a new linked worktree for it. Optionally, you may specify a different parent ref.

mate new feature/login          # checkout in main worktree
mate new feature/login -w       # create a linked worktree
mate new feature/login -w --from v2.1.0  # branch from a specific ref

mate checkout <branch>

Checks out an existing branch — local or remote. If the branch already exists in a worktree, navigates there instead.

mate checkout feature/login           # checkout in main worktree
mate checkout feature/login -w        # create a linked worktree and cd into it

mate finish [<branch>]

You're done with a branch. Depending on where the branch is checked out:

• If it's in a linked worktree: removes the worktree and navigates back to the main worktree
• If it's checked out in the main worktree: switches to the default branch

mate finish                     # finish current branch/worktree
mate finish feature/login       # finish a specific branch from anywhere

mate sync

Fetches all remotes and prunes stale local tracking references, then pulls the current branch if an upstream is configured.

mate sync                       # fetch + prune, then pull
mate sync --rebase              # pull with --rebase
mate sync --ff-only             # pull with --ff-only

Installation

cargo install git-mate

Shell Integration

Optionally add this to your shell config for shell completion and automatic cd support:

# ~/.zshrc  or  ~/.bashrc
eval "$(command mate init zsh)"   # zsh
eval "$(command mate init bash)"  # bash

Worktree location

Worktrees are created under a root directory, organized by repository and branch names. Set the root path in the git configuration:

# Set global defaults
git config --global mate.worktreeRoot "~/worktrees"

# Override for a specific repo (run inside that repo)
git config mate.worktreeRoot "../worktrees"