worktree-triage

name	worktree-triage
description	Scan git worktrees against a base ref, classify safe/rescue/dirty/locked branches, cleanup safe or confirmed-superseded stale worktrees when requested, and open draft PRs for unmerged work only on explicit confirmation.

Worktree Triage

Contract

Prereqs:

• For one repo, run from inside the target git repository (or pass --repo <path>).
• For machine-wide cleanup, pass --all-managed to scan every repository represented under the managed worktree root (${AGENT_HOME:-${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/agent-runtime-kit}/worktrees).
• git and git-cli are on PATH; Python 3.11+ is available (the bundled worktree_triage.py helper is stdlib-only).
• forge-cli >=1.11.2 is installed from the released nils-cli package for the draft-PR rescue path. The scan itself needs no provider access.
• The base ref the work should have landed on is fetched and current in every scanned repo. The helper is read-only and never fetches — run git fetch origin --prune yourself first (in each represented repo for --all-managed) so origin/main is not stale, or the ahead/behind and supersession verdicts will be wrong.

Inputs:

• The scope to scan:
  • --all-managed for every repo represented under the managed worktree root. Use this when the user says "all worktrees", "no agents are running", or otherwise asks for global cleanup without naming one repo.
  • --repo <path> for one repo, or no scope flag to scan the current repo.
• The base ref each branch is classified against (--base, defaults to origin/main).

Outputs:

• A worktree-triage.scan.v1 JSON envelope (or text) with a scope, optional worktree_root, a repos array, a summary (per-disposition counts) and a worktrees array. Each record carries path, repo_root, branch, is_primary, disposition, suggested_action, and — for branches with unique commits — ahead/behind, a unique_commit_count, and an evidence block with the two-dot git diff <base>..<branch> shortstat plus a likely_superseded flag.

Dispositions (the heart of the triage):

• primary — the repo's main working tree. Never a removal target.
• dirty — uncommitted changes present. Blocked from removal so in-progress work is never lost.
• locked — a git-locked worktree. Surfaced, never auto-removed.
• safe-merged — branch tip is an ancestor of the base (nothing ahead). Safe to prune.
• safe-superseded — branch is ahead by commit SHA, but every commit is patch-equivalent to one already in the base (git cherry reports them all as -). Safe to prune.
• rescue-candidate — branch has commits whose patch is not in the base. This needs human judgment: it may be genuine unmerged work, OR work that already reached the base via a different commit (patch-id is unreliable for that case — read evidence). Never auto-pruned.

Failure modes:

• Not a git repo, or --base does not resolve (usually a missing git fetch, or a non-main default branch — pass --base). In --all-managed, per-repo base failures are reported in errors; do not prune worktrees from a repo whose base could not be verified.
• A worktree is reported dirty or locked: that is a verdict to act on, not a tool error. Never remove either without resolving it first.
• A rescue-candidate whose evidence looks subtractive is a signal to review. It becomes auto-prunable only after the workflow below confirms that the branch's work is already represented on the base or was superseded by newer base content.

Entrypoint

For all managed agent worktrees, fetch each represented repo first, then scan:

$HOME/.hermes/plugins/meta/skills/worktree-triage/scripts/worktree-triage.sh --all-managed --base origin/main --format json

For one repo, fetch first so the base ref is current, then scan:

git fetch origin
$HOME/.hermes/plugins/meta/skills/worktree-triage/scripts/worktree-triage.sh --repo . --base origin/main

Machine-readable envelope for selection logic:

$HOME/.hermes/plugins/meta/skills/worktree-triage/scripts/worktree-triage.sh --repo . --base origin/main --format json

Workflow

1. Choose scope, fetch, then scan. If the user names one repo, use --repo; if the user asks for all worktrees or says no agents are running, use --all-managed. Run git fetch origin --prune for every represented repo in scope (state it; the helper never fetches), then run the helper. Treat its output as read-only evidence.

2. Present the triage table. Show the user each worktree's disposition, branch, ahead/behind, and suggested_action, grouped into: safe-to-prune (safe-merged + safe-superseded), rescue-candidates, and blocked (dirty / locked / primary).

3. Prune the mechanically safe set. When the user has asked to clean up worktrees, prune every safe-merged / safe-superseded record without per-item confirmation. Run the removal against the reported path and delete the branch from that record's repo_root (this matters for --all-managed, where rows may come from different repos):

   git-cli worktree remove <path-or-slug> --format json
   git -C <repo_root> branch -D <branch>
   

   Delete the remote branch only when it has no open PR, or its PR is itself superseded/closed. Never prune a primary, dirty, or locked worktree, and never prune anything from a repo listed in errors.

4. Auto-prune high-confidence stale rescue candidates. Judge each rescue-candidate from evidence instead of asking the user for another cleanup confirmation:

   • likely_superseded: true (net diff empty or subtractive) means the branch's content probably landed on the base via another commit. Confirm it by checking the full unique commit subjects against recent base commit bodies:

     git -C <repo_root> cherry -v <base> <branch>
     git -C <repo_root> log <base> --format=%B --max-count=600
     git -C <repo_root> diff --shortstat <base>..<branch>
     

     If every unique commit subject is present verbatim in recent base commit bodies and the two-dot diff is empty or net-subtractive, treat it as a confirmed stale duplicate and prune it like the safe set. If unique_commit_count is larger than evidence.sample_unique_commits, derive the full subject list from git cherry -v; do not rely only on the sample.

   • likely_superseded: false usually means real unmerged work. It can still be pruned without another user confirmation only when provider or base-log evidence proves the exact branch work already landed (for example, the branch's PR is merged or every unique subject appears in a squash commit) and the remaining two-dot diff is clearly the branch moving the checkout backward relative to newer base content, such as older dependency or generated-file versions. Otherwise retain it.

   • Exact subject misses, related-but-not-equal base commits, open PRs, and content diffs that are not clearly stale are retained and reported.

5. Stop at the remaining human gate. The skill may auto-prune only mechanically safe worktrees and high-confidence stale duplicates after the user has requested cleanup. It never removes primary, dirty, or locked worktrees, never removes rows from repos with scan errors, never opens or merges PRs without explicit confirmation, and never treats a related commit as proof of supersession.

Boundary

worktree_triage.py owns worktree enumeration, the ahead/behind and ancestor checks, the patch-equivalence (git cherry) call, the two-dot net-diff evidence, and the disposition verdict. The skill body owns when to fetch and scan, how to present the triage for selection, and the cleanup act phase: prune mechanically safe worktrees, prune high-confidence stale rescue-candidates after base/provider confirmation, and hand genuine unmerged work to PR delivery. It never re-implements the helper's classification in prose, never auto-removes a dirty/locked/primary worktree, never deletes a branch from a repo with scan errors, and never merges.

Related Skills

• deliver-pr — own the provider lifecycle for a genuine rescue-candidate, including opening its draft PR. Triage never merges.
• The active PR workflow closes a provider PR only after a rescue-candidate is confirmed already-on-base (superseded).
• sync-runtime-surfaces — its apply path refuses linked-worktree source roots; this skill is the companion that cleans those worktrees up.