↓ Skip to main content
tomrochette.com
  1. Agents/
  2. Orchestration/

gwq

Author
glm-5.3-flash
History / Edit / PDF / EPUB / MD
Created: / Updated: / Status: finished / Readability: 3 / 4 minutes read (~742 words)
agent-curated 560 cli 24 fully-ai-generated 663 git-worktrees 12 llm=glm-5.3-flash 570 orchestration 79 research-note 530 tmux 5
Table of Contents

gwq is an Apache-2.0 Go CLI that manages Git worktrees the way ghq manages clones: fuzzy-finder creation, switching, and deletion, a global view across every repository, a status dashboard, and tmux sessions for long-running commands, positioned explicitly for parallel AI coding agents.

gwq’s bet is that worktree management is a discovery problem, not a Git problem: point it at a base directory, and every worktree in every repository is one fuzzy search away.

What it is
#

A single-binary Go tool by d-kuro (Masayuki Ishii, a Kubernetes engineer), installed from his Homebrew tap, go install, or source, with the repository created 2025-05-26. Commands cover the lifecycle: add (new or existing branch, interactive pick), list with a global -g flag and JSON output, get for shell substitution, cd through shell integration, exec to run a command inside a worktree, remove with dry-run and branch cleanup, status --watch with filters, sorting, and CSV, tmux run/attach/kill for long-lived processes, and TOML config with global and per-project files. Discovery is filesystem scanning under worktree.basedir (default ~/worktrees) with no registry, and a naming template of {{.Host}}/{{.Owner}}/{{.Repository}}/{{.Branch}}. Per-repository repository_settings copy untracked files (recursive since v0.1.2, with .git never copied) and run setup commands, so a new worktree arrives ready. The README’s workflow section is blunt about the audience: create three worktrees, run claude in each, and watch them with gwq status --watch.

Status
#

Active with a slow release train: 475 stars and 23 forks as of 2026-10-21, repository created 2025-05-26, default-branch push 2026-10-02, latest release v0.1.2 on 2026-10-02 after v0.1.1 in May (GitHub API and releases, as of 2026-10-21).

Star History Chart

The independent footprint exists but is small: a two-point HN submission from May 2026 with no comments, and a September 2026 post on shunk031.me building a ghq × gwq × fzf workflow around it. Seventeen months of existence, a year of it before the agent boom, gives gwq the oldest creation date of any tool in its seat; the quiet release train is the trade.

Strengths
#

  • Global discovery without a registry: -g works from anywhere, and v0.1.2 made it fast (parallel git calls took a six-second scan with a large node_modules down to 0.2 seconds).
  • copy_files solves the untracked-files problem per repository, with rules for symlinks, nested repositories, and self-copying when the worktree base lives inside the repo.
  • status --watch is a terminal dashboard for parallel agent runs, with JSON and CSV output for scripting.
  • tmux integration keeps dev servers and watchers alive per worktree while the agent works.
  • One Go binary, shell completion for bash, zsh, and fish, and a Homebrew tap.

Cautions
#

  • No PR, diff, or review surface: it manages checkouts, not change delivery, so pair it with a review tool.
  • v0.1.x means the command set and config format can still move.
  • Two releases in 2026: fixes land on the default branch well before they land in the tap.
  • One maintainer whose public attention is mostly Kubernetes tooling.
  • Shell integration does not support PowerShell.

Pricing
#

Free and open source under Apache-2.0. No hosted tier and no paid plan; you pay only for the agents you run inside the worktrees.

Compared to
#

  • Worktrunk: the other worktree-lifecycle CLI here; Worktrunk is Rust with hooks and a one-command merge, while gwq’s edge is the global cross-repository view and the fuzzy finder.
  • Claude Squad: runs agents inside tmux sessions with worktrees; gwq manages the worktrees and leaves session management to you.
  • Plain git worktree plus a shell function: zero dependencies; gwq earns its keep once worktrees span several repositories and you want one status view.

Bottom line
#

Recommended for terminal-first engineers running parallel agents across many repositories who want discovery and status without an app. Not for anyone expecting review, PR, or session management from the same tool.

Changes
#

  • 2026-10-21 - Created.

See also
#

  • Orchestration Feature Matrix - the category comparison this note joins
  • Worktrunk - the other worktree-lifecycle CLI in the category
  • Claude Squad - the tmux-and-worktree runner one level up
  • dmux - the tmux TUI that gives every task pane a worktree
  • herdr - the terminal runtime that owns agents’ panes outright

References
#