Worktrees

Claude Code spawns a worktree per session — a branch with an auto-generated name (loving-khayyam, funny-wozniak, etc.) living under ~/.claude-worktrees/mono/. The worktree vanishes when the session ends, but the branch stays. They pile up fast. 28 branches and counting.

The Problem

Stale branches accumulate silently. They don't hurt anything until they do — confusing branch lists, stale refs, disk clutter if worktrees aren't cleaned up.

Remove Strategy

1. Never delete the active worktree — git worktree list shows what's live
2. Prune dead worktrees first — git worktree prune cleans up directories that no longer exist
3. Delete stale branches in bulk — everything except main and the current worktree branch:

git branch | grep -v -E '^\*|main|<current-branch>' | xargs git branch -D

4. When to run — whenever the branch list feels cluttered, or at session start as hygiene
5. Never force-delete a branch that has a worktree — prune first, then delete

What NOT to Do

• Don't read or write files via worktree paths (~/.claude-worktrees/...). Always use ~/GitHub/mono/.
• Don't assume worktree branches have meaningful content — they're session scaffolding, not feature branches.