I assumed Git worktrees were introduced for the AI era. Turns out they have existed since 2015 and waited nearly a decade for agentic coding to give them the limelight they deserve.
I thought of writing an article about how revolutionary Git worktrees are now that agentic coding has become the norm.
Worktrees fit so naturally into agentic coding that I assumed the feature was introduced in the AI era, for the AI era.
Turns out, I was so wrong.
Worktrees have been part of Git since 2015.
Can you imagine that?
The feature existed for nearly ten years before agentic coding brought it into the limelight.
Imagine building something that does not get the attention it deserves for almost a decade. If you were working in a corporation, someone might question the adoption numbers, move the feature into maintenance mode, or perhaps even fire you 😄.
But the developer behind worktrees should be proud.
They built a feature that was far ahead of its time. It simply had to wait for the rest of software development to catch up.
Damn, worktrees finally got the limelight they deserve!