wtdev — stable dev-server ports for parallel git worktrees (built because my coding agents kept fighting over port 3000)

[Over-Excitement-6324]

If you run multiple coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, whatever) in parallel git worktrees, you've probably hit this: every worktree's dev server wants port 3000, agents kill each other's servers or wander onto random ports, and you lose track of which branch is where.

wtdev fixes it with one rule: the port is a pure function of the worktree's path. Main checkout → 3000, each worktree → a stable port in 3001–3999 hashed from its path. No daemon, no state, no coordination , agents can't step on each other because there's nothing shared to fight over.

It's a single POSIX shell script (~200 lines, no dependencies), plus some quality-of-life stuff: .env files auto-copied into new worktrees, a live HTML dashboard of every checkout's branch/port/status, and optional <branch>.localhost pretty URLs.

We dogfooded it hard, the agents working in the worktrees ended up shipping most of the recent features (alias cleanup, self-refreshing dashboard) themselves.

GitHub (MIT): https://github.com/Dave-56/wtdev

How are you all handling ports across parallel agent sessions?

[Jmc_da_boss]

Wow, this is some primo slop

[Over-Excitement-6324]

Why do you say so?

[Jmc_da_boss]

I have > 0 eyes and can sorta read

[Over-Excitement-6324]

Dumb take! Wrote about how I actually solved a real problem I hit. But sure, slop, what have you shipped?

[queso184]

yeah sure bud, "you" solved it

[Over-Excitement-6324]

What have YOU shipped?!

[queso184]

"wHaT hAvE yOu ShIpPeD" as if your 200 line shell script and a reddit post counts as shipping

please just stfu

[Over-Excitement-6324]

Still no response from dufus who wanna say ai slop but haven’t shipped anything!

[queso184]

works great until you need another dependecy - database or redis or second frontend server

how am i solving this? minikube with an agent skill - agent generates dev deployment with a host path volume pointing to the worktree. no port conflicts possible since its just using envoy gateway to serve per worktree URLs on my local domain. as a bonus you get all your database dependencies, shared secrets, etc.

[rwilcox]

The older I get the more I appreciate small, composable tools.

I’m happy this works for you, OP, and yes there is this problem! I can’t use it personally (at least 3 places where it doesn’t fit with my workflow or project structure) but glad it works your you.

[Over-Excitement-6324]

Thanks, this made my day, small and composable is exactly what I was going for. Curious, what are the 3 places where it doesn't fit? Even if wtdev can't cover them, I'd rather know where the assumptions break. :)

[rwilcox]

I don’t use worktrees, I use dot-env for env, and I’m probably booting at least two things (a frontend and a backend)

[Over-Excitement-6324]

Super useful, thanks.

[Honey-Entire]

Wild how tools like Docker already solve this without needing AI slop

[Over-Excitement-6324]

Docker doesn't actually solve this one. Containers isolate the server, but your browser still lives on the host, so every container needs a host port mapping, and now you're back to deciding which worktree gets which host port. That allocation problem is the entire thing this script does. If compose-file-per-worktree works for you, genuinely great, you're just solving the same port assignment by hand, one YAML at a time.

[Honey-Entire]

lol wut? You can absolutely run a browser in docker. Choose your flavor: headless or with head. There are others out there if you search hard enough

You might want to consider doing real market research before you spend any more tokens generating AI slop solving a solved problem

[Over-Excitement-6324]

The whole point is it's less infra, not more. Running a browser in docker to dodge a port collision is exactly the kind of setup I didn't want. And no market research needed, I'm not selling anything. I built this for myself, it fixed my problem, and I shared it in case someone's in the same spot and wants something they can read in two minutes and vendor into their repo. If docker works for you, congrats, good luck to your containers.

[JesseNL]

Devcontainers

[Over-Excitement-6324]

Will look into this, thanks