Spin Up a Git Worktree for an Emergency Hotfix

Keep your feature branch intact while patching production in a separate working tree.

worktreehotfixemergencyworkflowparallel development

When to use

You are midway through a large feature, but a production regression needs a quick patch. Worktrees provide a clean checkout without juggling stashes or losing context.

Pre-flight

Confirm disk space for another copy of the repository working files (Git objects are shared, so overhead is minimal).
Know which commit or branch represents the deployment you must patch (for example, main or a release tag).

Steps

Fetch the latest from remote and create a worktree pointing at the branch that mirrors production.
```
git fetch origin main
git worktree add ../repo-hotfix origin/main
```
This creates a new directory ../repo-hotfix checked out to origin/main in a detached HEAD state.
Switch into the new directory and create a hotfix branch.
```
cd ../repo-hotfix
git checkout -b hotfix/rollbar-init
```
Implement and test the fix without disturbing your original working directory.
```
git commit -am "fix: ensure rollbar initializes before use"
```
Push the branch for review and merge as usual.
```
git push -u origin hotfix/rollbar-init
```

Once merged and deployed, clean up the worktree and branch.

cd ../your-main-repo
git worktree remove ../repo-hotfix
git branch -d hotfix/rollbar-init
git push origin --delete hotfix/rollbar-init

Verification

git worktree list no longer shows the hotfix directory after cleanup.
Monitoring or release dashboards confirm the hotfix is live.

Follow-up

Document the incident or update the runbook so the next responder knows the context.
Consider adding automated tests to prevent the regression from resurfacing.

Related worktree scenarios

Deep dive

For a complete reference of all git worktree commands, flags, and best practices, see Understanding Git Worktree: Commands, Flags, and Best Practices.