arbor

Fast, dependency-light command-line tool for managing reusable Git worktrees.

Arbor gives you (and your AI coding agents) isolated, throwaway workspaces backed by a shared pool of Git worktrees: acquire one, work in it, and Arbor cleans it and returns it to the pool automatically.

Install

Run it on demand — no global install, no per-repository setup:

npx @owenstrength/arbor

Or install it once and use it anywhere (the command is arbor):

npm install -g @owenstrength/arbor
arbor

The prebuilt arbor binary for your platform ships as a small platform-specific optional dependency (e.g. @owenstrength/arbor-darwin-arm64), so npm installs only the one that matches your machine — no compiler, and no download at runtime. Upgrading is just a new version: npx @owenstrength/arbor@latest.

Supported platforms: macOS (arm64, x64) and Linux (x64, arm64). The only runtime dependency is git.

Usage

arbor               # acquire a workspace and open a shell in it
arbor status        # show active and preserved workspaces
arbor status --all  # show the full pool, including cached workspaces
arbor return PATH   # return a workspace to the pool
arbor prune         # remove invalid/empty pool slots

See the full documentation.

Environment variables

• ARBOR_BINARY — path to an arbor binary to run instead of the bundled one (useful for development or air-gapped environments).

License

MIT