Running commands across worktrees

daft exec runs a command against one or more worktrees without changing your current directory. It's the right tool when you want to:

• Run a test or build on a specific branch without switching to it
• Fan-out a lint or format pass across every branch in flight
• Execute a pipeline of setup commands across many worktrees at once

The basics

daft exec feat/auth -- cargo test
daft exec --all -- pnpm lint
daft exec 'feat/*' -- npm test

Positional arguments can be branch names, worktree directory names, or globs against branch names. --all expands to every worktree. The -- separator marks the boundary between daft's flags and the command you want to run — everything after it is forwarded verbatim.

Multiple commands

Pass -x one or more times to run a pipeline of commands sequentially per worktree. If any command in the pipeline fails, that worktree's pipeline stops; other worktrees are unaffected.

daft exec --all -x 'mise install' -x 'pnpm build' -x 'pnpm test'

-x and -- are mutually exclusive. Use -x for pipelines, -- for single commands whose own flags would otherwise collide with daft's.

Parallel vs sequential

By default, worktrees run in parallel. Use --sequential to run them one at a time (stopping on first failure), or --keep-going to run every worktree even after failures:

daft exec --all -- cargo test               # parallel, default
daft exec --all --sequential -- cargo test  # one at a time, stop on first fail
daft exec --all --keep-going -- cargo test  # one at a time, don't stop

Single-target pass-through

When your selectors resolve to exactly one worktree, daft hands stdio through directly. Interactive programs work:

daft exec feat/auth -- claude
daft exec feat/auth -- vim src/main.rs

No UI renders; the child's exit code is propagated verbatim.

Viewing output

During a multi-worktree run, daft exec shows a live progress row per worktree with a rolling tail of output beneath each. When a worktree finishes, its row collapses to a single compact line that names the command inline. After all worktrees complete, any that failed have their captured output dumped to stdout for easy scrollback review.

Each finalized row shows the worktree name, the command that ran, and a state-specific suffix:

• ✓ branch ❯ cmd (1.5s) — command succeeded
• ✗ branch ❯ cmd (1.2s) — command exited non-zero
• ⊘ branch ❯ cmd cancelled after 0.4s — command was running when Ctrl-C fired
• ○ branch ❯ cmd skipped — command never started (fail-fast upstream or cancel before launch)

Relationship to other commands

Use case	Command
Run once, ad-hoc, across many worktrees	daft exec
Run every time a worktree is created	daft.yml worktree-post-create hook
Run once per command invocation on a new worktree	-x flag on daft clone / init / checkout

See also

• daft exec / git worktree-exec — CLI reference
• Hooks — recurring per-worktree automation via daft.yml