Audit a Release or Tag in a Worktree

Inspect a specific tagged release without disturbing your current working directory.

worktreereleasetagauditdetached HEAD

When to use

You need to investigate a bug reported in a specific release, review what shipped in a particular version, or compare current code against a tagged release.

Pre-flight

Know the tag name or release version you need to audit (e.g., v2.0.0, release-2024-01).
Ensure tags are fetched from the remote: git fetch --tags.

Steps

Fetch the latest tags from the remote.
```
git fetch --tags
```
Create a worktree in detached HEAD state pointing at the tag.
```
git worktree add --detach ../v2-audit v2.0.0
```
The --detach flag creates the worktree without checking out a branch, perfect for read-only inspection.

Navigate to the audit directory and investigate.

cd ../v2-audit

# Check the exact commit
git log -1

# Search for specific code
grep -r "buggyFunction" src/

# Run the old version if needed
npm ci && npm start

When finished, remove the audit worktree.

cd ../your-main-repo
git worktree remove ../v2-audit

Verification

git worktree list in the audit directory shows (detached HEAD).
git describe --tags confirms you are at the expected tag.

Why use --detach?

Tags point to specific commits, not branches. Using --detach:

Avoids creating an unnecessary local branch.
Makes it clear this is a read-only inspection.
Prevents accidental commits to a release point.

Alternative: Audit a specific commit

Works the same way with commit hashes:

git worktree add --detach ../commit-audit abc1234

Follow-up

Document any issues found during the audit.
If a bug is confirmed, create a fix on the appropriate branch.