Create Worktree From Issue

Create Worktree from Issue

Find a GitHub issue and create a dedicated worktree + tmux window via workmux add.

Workflow

1. Find the Issue

The user provides either an issue number or descriptive text.

By number:

gh issue view NUMBER --json number,title,labels,body,state

By text (fuzzy search):

gh issue list --search "USER_TEXT" --state all --json number,title,labels,state --limit 10

If the search returns exactly one result, proceed automatically with that issue without asking for additional confirmation.

If the search returns multiple results, present them to the user and ask which one to use.

If no results, try broadening the search or ask the user to refine their query.

2. Mark Issue In Progress

If the issue is open, signal that work is starting. Skip this step for closed issues.

Self-assign:

gh issue edit NUMBER --add-assignee @me

Ensure the label exists, then add it:

gh label create "in progress" --description "Work is actively being done" --color FBCA04 2> /dev/null || true
gh issue edit NUMBER --add-label "in progress"

The gh label create command is safe to run even if the label already exists — 2>/dev/null suppresses the "already exists" error and || true ensures a zero exit code so the subsequent command always runs. This ensures the label is available before gh issue edit --add-label attempts to use it, since gh does not auto-create labels.

Self-assignment is idempotent — safe to re-run if the assignee already exists.

If any command fails, warn the user but continue with worktree creation. Status marking is best-effort and must never block the primary workflow.

The "in progress" label is intentionally retained beyond worktree creation and local implementation. It represents active issue lifecycle state until the related pull request is merged or the user explicitly abandons the effort. Do not remove it as part of creating the worktree.

3. Build the Branch Name

Construct a branch name in the format TYPE/SLUG where:

• TYPE: Derive from issue labels. Use fix for labels containing "bug" or "fix". Use feature for everything else (including when no labels match).
• SLUG: Slugify the issue title: lowercase, replace spaces and special characters with hyphens, collapse consecutive hyphens, trim leading/trailing hyphens, truncate to 50 characters at a word boundary.

Examples:

• Issue "Add dark mode support" with label "enhancement" -> feature/add-dark-mode-support
• Issue "Login fails with special chars" with label "bug" -> fix/login-fails-with-special-chars
• Issue "Update README" with no labels -> feature/update-readme

4. Compose the Issue Prompt

Use the bundled compose-issue-prompt helper to convert gh issue view --json number,title,labels,body,state output into this prompt format:

Work on issue #NUMBER: TITLE

Labels: LABEL1, LABEL2

BODY_CONTENT

• If the issue body exceeds approximately 2000 characters, truncate it at the nearest paragraph or sentence boundary and append: "(Issue body truncated. Run gh issue view NUMBER for full details.)"
• If the issue body is empty, omit it.
• If there are no labels, omit the labels line.

5. Create the Worktree

Important: The workmux add command must be fully detached from the Claude Code process. workmux creates tmux windows and spawns new Claude sessions, which cannot initialize while the parent Claude Code process is alive. The launch-workmux script handles backgrounding, detaching, waiting, and outputting the log.

Template escaping: workmux renders the prompt body through MiniJinja, so any literal {{, {%, or {# token in the issue body (e.g. GitHub Actions ${{ inputs.x }} expressions, Jinja/Liquid/Tera/Helm/Vue templates, Handlebars-style snippets) would otherwise be parsed as a template variable reference and rejected with Template uses undefined variables. The launch-workmux script reads the prompt from stdin, writes an escaped temporary prompt file for workmux add -P, and removes that temporary file after workmux add exits. Each escaped delimiter renders back to the literal characters, so the issue context stored at /.workmux/PROMPT-*.md matches the original prompt.

Locating the scripts: At the start of your session, locate the scripts by searching for **/create-worktree-from-issue/scripts/compose-issue-prompt and **/create-worktree-from-issue/scripts/launch-workmux. Note the absolute paths and use each with bash as the command prefix in all subsequent invocations. Do not use a shell variable, since shell state does not persist between commands.

In the example below, SCRIPTS_DIR/compose-issue-prompt and SCRIPTS_DIR/launch-workmux are placeholders for the scripts' quoted absolute paths. Always invoke them via bash followed by the quoted path. This ensures the command token is bash, which matches stable allowlist patterns regardless of the plugin's installed path or version.

Do not specify a --base branch. Let workmux use its default.

gh issue view NUMBER --json number,title,labels,body,state \
  | bash "SCRIPTS_DIR/compose-issue-prompt" \
  | bash "SCRIPTS_DIR/launch-workmux" "BRANCH_NAME"

The script outputs the workmux log directly and cleans up its own log file. Verify success:

git worktree list

6. Report Success

After confirming the worktree exists in git worktree list, report:

• The issue number and title
• The branch name created
• The tmux window name (to help the user switch to it)
• A note that the issue context was injected into the new session
• Whether the issue was marked in progress (assigned and labeled), or if status marking was skipped/failed
• If status marking succeeded, a note that the "in progress" label is retained until PR merge or explicit abandonment

Error Handling

• If gh is not authenticated, instruct the user to run gh auth login
• If workmux is not installed, inform the user
• If the issue is closed, warn the user and ask if they want to proceed anyway
• If status marking fails (assignment or labeling), warn the user but continue with worktree creation — status marking is best-effort

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: cboone
• Source: cboone/agent-harness-plugins
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://github.com/cboone/agent-harness-plugins

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.