Pushing from git worktree branches to main

TL;DR

When running multiple Claude Code instances, pushing from each instance's wip branch directly to origin/main is the simplest approach. Conflicts resolve with a single git pull --rebase origin main command.

Setup: Worktree Layout

my_web_app/
  .claude/worktrees/
    instance-ps1/    ← branch: claude/ps1-wip
    instance-ps2/    ← branch: claude/ps2-wip
    instance-vscode/ ← branch: claude/vscode-wip

Each instance works exclusively on its wip branch and merges into origin/main only at push time.

3 Push Patterns

Pattern 1: HEAD:main (recommended)

git push origin HEAD:main

Pushes the currently checked-out branch to origin/main. No need to remember branch names.

Pattern 2: Explicit branch name

git push origin claude/ps1-wip:main

Better for scripts and CI where HEAD might be ambiguous.

Pattern 3: Push from outside the worktree

git -C .claude/worktrees/instance-ps1 push origin HEAD:main

Useful when pushing another instance's changes from the main repo directory.

Conflict Recovery

When two instances push simultaneously, the second one gets rejected:

! [rejected]        claude/ps1-wip -> main (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs
hint: Updates were rejected because the remote contains work that you do
hint: not have locally.

Standard recovery (single command):

git pull --rebase origin main && git push origin HEAD:main

Using rebase avoids merge commits — keeps the log clean.

Common Conflict Patterns and Fixes

Simultaneous ROADMAP.md appends

docs/GROWTH_STRATEGY_ROADMAP.md gets appended by every instance at session end — it's the most conflict-prone file.

Fix: Assign a fixed section per instance:

### PS版#1 Session Log

### PS版#2 Session Log

### VSCode Session Log

Instances never touch each other's sections, so rebase auto-merges succeed most of the time.

Migration file timestamp collision

20260419220000_seed_foo.sql   ← created by PS#1
20260419220000_seed_bar.sql   ← created by Win at the same second

Identical timestamps cause duplicate key errors in Supabase deploy.

Fix: Before creating a migration file, check the current max timestamp for the day:

ls supabase/migrations/ | grep $(date +%Y%m%d) | sort | tail -1
# → 20260419220000_seed_foo.sql

# New file: +10 seconds
touch supabase/migrations/20260419220010_seed_bar.sql

wip branch far behind main

After a long session, origin/main might be 20+ commits ahead, increasing rebase conflicts.

Diagnosis:

git log --oneline claude/ps1-wip..origin/main | wc -l
# If 20+, inspect before rebasing

Fix: If 3+ conflicts, switch to merge:

git rebase --abort
git fetch origin
git merge origin/main  # accept the merge commit
# resolve conflicts manually
git push origin HEAD:main

Summary

Conflicts in multi-instance parallel development can't be completely eliminated. But by consistently using {% raw %}rebase + direct push to main, you can maintain a state where any conflict is recoverable in under 30 seconds.

Building in public: https://my-web-app-b67f4.web.app/

ClaudeCode #git #buildinpublic