Worktrees + AI agents: parallel development without the chaos

The context-switching problem

Every developer knows the pain: you're deep into a feature, and a critical bug lands. You stash, switch branches, fix, switch back, pop stash, and spend ten minutes remembering where you were. Multiply that by a busy sprint and you're spending more time context-switching than actually coding.

Worktrees to the rescue

Git worktrees let you check out multiple branches of the same repo simultaneously, each in its own directory. No stashing, no switching. Your feature branch stays open in one directory while you fix the bug in another. The key insight is that they share the same .git directory, so there's no cloning overhead and commits are immediately visible across worktrees.

Adding AI agents to the mix

Here's where it gets interesting. Tools like Claude Code can spawn isolated agents inside worktrees. You kick off an agent to refactor module A in one worktree while you manually work on feature B in another. The agent works autonomously, runs tests, iterates, and you review when it's done.

The workflow looks like this: create a worktree, point an agent at the task, continue your own work. When the agent finishes, you review the diff and merge. Two streams of work, one developer.

What actually changes

The shift isn't just about speed. It's about keeping your mental model intact. You stop paying the tax of loading and unloading context every time priorities shift. The agent handles the mechanical work in isolation, and you stay in flow on the work that needs your judgment.

It's not magic. You still review everything. But the throughput difference is real.