Code Review with Worktrees

Review pull requests without disrupting your current work

Reviewing pull requests traditionally means stashing your work, checking out the PR branch, testing it, then returning to your work. Worktrees eliminate this friction by letting you review PRs in isolated directories.

The Traditional Pain

Reviewing a PR without worktrees:

1. Stash your current work: git stash
2. Fetch PR branch: git fetch origin pull/123/head:pr-123
3. Checkout PR: git checkout pr-123
4. Install dependencies: npm install
5. Test the changes
6. Return to your work: git checkout your-branch
7. Unstash: git stash pop
8. Reinstall dependencies: npm install

This is slow, error-prone, and disrupts your flow.

Worktree Review Flow

1. Create review worktree

   While working on your feature, create a worktree for the PR:

   gwt pr-123 -x
   

   The -x flag prevents opening an editor, keeping your current editor focused on your work.

2. Fetch and checkout the PR

   cd repo-pr-123
   gh pr checkout 123
   

   Or manually:

   git fetch origin pull/123/head:pr-123
   git checkout pr-123
   
3. Review in isolation

   Test the PR without affecting your work:

   npm install
   npm test
   npm run dev  # Test on localhost:3000
   

   Your original work in repo-feature-login/ is completely untouched.

4. Leave feedback

   Add review comments using GitHub CLI:

   gh pr review 123 --comment -b "Looks good! Just one small issue..."
   

   Or request changes:

   gh pr review 123 --request-changes -b "Need to fix the validation logic"
   
5. Clean up

   After reviewing, remove the worktree:

   gwt rm  # Interactive selection
   

   Your original work remains untouched. Return to it instantly:

   cd repo-feature-login
   

Multiple PR Reviews

Review multiple PRs simultaneously:

# Create worktrees for all PRs needing review
gwt pr-101 pr-102 pr-103 -x

# Review each in parallel
cd repo-pr-101
gh pr checkout 101
npm install && npm test

cd ../repo-pr-102  
gh pr checkout 102
npm install && npm test

cd ../repo-pr-103
gh pr checkout 103
npm install && npm test

All reviews happen independently without conflicts.

Review Scenarios

Quick Approval

For simple PRs that just need a quick look:

gwt review-quick -x
cd repo-review-quick
gh pr checkout 456
gh pr view --web  # View in browser
gh pr review 456 --approve
cd ..
gwt rm  # Clean up immediately

Deep Review

For complex PRs requiring thorough testing:

gwt review-auth-refactor
cd repo-review-auth-refactor
gh pr checkout 789
npm install
npm test
npm run dev  # Manual testing
# Run through test cases
gh pr review 789 --comment

Review + Test Changes

Test PR with your feature:

# Create worktree for testing
gwt test-integration -x
cd repo-test-integration
# Merge PR branch locally
git merge origin/pr-branch
# Test integration
npm test

Suggest Changes

Make suggested edits directly:

gwt pr-review-edits
cd repo-pr-review-edits  
gh pr checkout 234
# Make suggested changes
git add .
git commit -m "Suggested fixes"
git push

GitHub CLI Integration

Powerful PR review commands with gh:

List PRs needing review

gh pr list --search "review-requested:@me"

Check out PR directly

cd repo-pr-123
gh pr checkout 123  # Automatically fetches and checks out

View PR details

gh pr view 123

Review with comments

# Approve
gh pr review 123 --approve -b "LGTM!"

# Request changes
gh pr review 123 --request-changes -b "Please fix the validation"

# Comment only
gh pr review 123 --comment -b "Have you considered..."

Add inline comments

gh pr comment 123 --body "Great approach!" --file src/auth.ts --line 42

Advanced Review Workflows

Compare with main

Review changes side-by-side:

cd repo-pr-123
git diff main...HEAD

Or use a GUI:

code --diff ../repo/src/auth.ts ./src/auth.ts

Run performance tests

Benchmark PR against main:

# In PR worktree
cd repo-pr-123
npm run benchmark > pr-results.txt

# In main worktree
cd repo
npm run benchmark > main-results.txt

# Compare
diff main-results.txt ../repo-pr-123/pr-results.txt

Security review

Check for security issues:

cd repo-pr-123
npm audit
npm run lint:security
git diff main... | grep -i "password\|token\|secret"

Visual regression testing

Compare UI changes:

# Main version
cd repo
npm run dev -- --port 3000
npm run screenshot

# PR version
cd repo-pr-123  
npm run dev -- --port 3001
npm run screenshot

# Compare screenshots
npm run compare-screenshots

Team Review Practices

Assign yourself as reviewer

Create worktree immediately when assigned:

# You get assigned to PR #567
gwt pr-567 -x
cd repo-pr-567
gh pr checkout 567
npm install

Batch review sessions

Set up all PRs for your review session:

# Get list of PRs assigned to you
gh pr list --search "review-requested:@me" --json number --jq '.[].number'

# Create worktrees for all of them
gwt pr-101 pr-102 pr-103 pr-104 -x

# Review each
for pr in 101 102 103 104; do
  cd repo-pr-$pr
  gh pr checkout $pr
  npm install && npm test
  cd ..
done

Leave detailed feedback

cd repo-pr-123
gh pr review 123 --comment --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Review Comments

### What I liked
- Clean implementation of auth logic
- Good test coverage

### Suggestions  
- Consider extracting validation into a separate function
- Add JSDoc comments to public methods

### Questions
- Have you tested this with expired tokens?
EOF
)"

Quick Commands Reference

Create review worktree

gwt pr-123 -x
cd repo-pr-123
gh pr checkout 123

Best Practices

Review in fresh worktrees - Always create a new worktree for PR reviews to ensure a clean environment.

Use descriptive names - Name review worktrees pr-123 or review-feature-name for clarity.

Clean up after reviewing - Remove review worktrees promptly to avoid clutter: gwt clean

Troubleshooting

PR checkout fails

If gh pr checkout fails:

# Fetch PR manually
git fetch origin pull/123/head:pr-123
git checkout pr-123

Dependency conflicts

If dependencies conflict with your main work:

cd repo-pr-123
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install

Each worktree has independent node_modules.

Port conflicts when testing

Run PR dev server on different port:

PORT=3001 npm run dev

Next Steps

Parallel Agents

Run multiple AI agents simultaneously on different branches.

Feature Development

Learn the complete feature development workflow.