The Problem: Worktrees Without Guardrails
Git worktrees - multiple checked-out branches in separate directories - have been around since 2016. They're useful for parallel work, eliminating the git stash shuffle. But as teams run more AI coding agents across multiple branches simultaneously, manual worktree management gets messy. The recurring questions: Where to create the next one? How to navigate between dozens? What's safe to delete?
The Solution: Infrastructure-as-Code for Git
Developer tasuku43 shipped gion, applying the plan-apply pattern from infrastructure tools to Git worktrees. You declare desired state in gion.yaml, run gion apply to see a diff, then confirm. The tool creates, updates, or removes worktrees in bulk with rollback guardrails.
What's interesting: gion introduces "workspaces" - task-scoped directories that can contain multiple worktrees across different repos. Think PROJ-123 containing backend, frontend, and docs worktrees. Delete the workspace directory when the task is done. It's a monorepo workflow pattern for multi-repo setups.
The CLI includes giongo for fuzzy navigation and batch operations via gion manifest add. For review workflows, you can queue multiple GitHub Issues or PRs, then create all worktrees in one apply cycle.
Why This Matters
The infrastructure-as-code pattern here is notable. Declarative config with schema validation, plan-before-apply cycles, and explicit guardrails - patterns enterprise teams already know from Terraform or Kubernetes - applied to developer workflow automation.
Worth noting: this addresses a real friction point. VS Code's Git Worktree Manager extension has 1.4M+ marketplace installs, indicating demand. Tools like gwq (fuzzy finder for worktrees) have emerged for similar reasons. The parallel AI agent use case is new, but the underlying problem - managing many parallel branches safely - isn't.
The trade-offs: you're adding YAML config and learning new commands for what Git handles natively. Whether that overhead pays off depends on how often you're spinning up and tearing down parallel work environments. For teams running multiple AI agents or handling high PR volume, the guardrails might be worth it.
What to Watch
This is an open-source CLI from a single developer. No enterprise adoption metrics yet. The pattern is more interesting than the specific tool - applying infra-as-code guardrails to Git operations could extend beyond worktrees to branch policies, merge strategies, or monorepo management.
The GitHub-only integration (via gh CLI) limits scope. Enterprise teams on GitLab or Bitbucket would need different tooling.
The real question: Do your developers spend enough time managing parallel Git state that declarative automation with guardrails would reduce friction? If you're already seeing worktree cleanup mistakes or struggling with AI agent isolation, this approach is worth evaluating.