spork

A CLI tool that forks your repo into git worktrees and copies all the gitignored stuff so you get a fully working dev environment in a separate directory.

No more juggling stashes. No more "hold on let me commit this first." Just spork new and you're off.

Install

go install github.com/zenyui/spork@latest

Usage

# spin up a new worktree (alias: spork create)
spork new my-feature

# see what you've got going
spork list

# where am I, and what's linked here?
spork status

# get the path (handy for piping)
code $(spork path my-feature)

# pull latest main into this spork and start a new branch
spork refresh my-next-feature

# clean up when you're done
spork delete my-feature

What it does

1. Creates a git worktree on a new spork/<name> branch
2. Finds everything in your .gitignore (node_modules, .env, build artifacts, etc.)
3. Clones it into the new worktree using copy-on-write where the filesystem supports it (APFS, Btrfs, XFS), falling back to a normal copy

The result lives at ~/.spork/<repo>/<name> — out of the way, easy to nuke.

Tasks

Each spork can be linked to one or more tasks. Task notes live at ~/.spork/tasks/<id>.md as plain markdown — read and edit them however you like.

# create a task and link it to the current spork
spork task create my-feature
spork task link my-feature

# or do both at once
spork task link ENG-1234 --create

# see all tasks (* = linked to current spork)
spork task list

# task details + which sporks reference it
spork task show ENG-1234

# open the notes file in $EDITOR
spork task note ENG-1234

JSON output

list, status, task list, and task show accept --output-format json for scripting and agents. task show --output-format json also parses GFM checklist items (- [ ] / - [x]) into a structured checklist array. status --output-format json exits 0 with {"in_spork": false} when run outside a spork (text mode still errors).

Run from anywhere

All commands resolve back to the main worktree, so you can run spork new from inside an existing spork. It just works.

spork list, spork path, and spork pick also work from outside any git repo — they fall back to walking ~/.spork/code/ so you can find your sporks from any terminal.

Picking a spork

spork pick interactively picks a repo and then a spork, prints the chosen path, and opens a new terminal window/tab at that worktree. Uses Windows Terminal (wt) on Windows, Terminal.app on macOS, and the system terminal emulator on Linux — best-effort and silent if no terminal launcher is found.

If you'd rather cd in place, compose with your shell:

# bash / zsh
cd "$(spork pick)"

# PowerShell
Set-Location (spork pick)

Use with Claude Code

Spork ships a Claude Code skill at .claude/skills/spork-tasks/. Claude loads it on demand — when you're inside a spork or mention tasks — so it picks up the spork context without bloating every conversation.

To use it across all your projects, install it at the user level:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R .claude/skills/spork-tasks ~/.claude/skills/

Once installed, Claude will check spork status at the start of a conversation, read linked task notes, and keep them updated as you work.