Quick Start: Same CLI Mode

This walkthrough shows how to launch git-paw with the same AI CLI on all branches — the most common workflow.

Prerequisites

• git-paw installed
• tmux installed
• At least one AI CLI installed (e.g., claude)
• A git repository with multiple branches

Step 1: Navigate to your repo

cd ~/projects/my-app

Step 2: Launch git-paw

git paw

If neither your repo nor your global config has a [supervisor] section, git-paw first asks Start in supervisor mode? [y/N] — answer n (the default) for this walkthrough.

Step 3: Select branches

A multi-select list of all your branches (sorted by name) appears with type-to-filter search:

Select branches (type to filter, ctrl-u to clear, space to toggle, enter to confirm)
filter:
  [x] feat/api
  [x] feat/auth
  [ ] fix/typo
  [ ] main
> [x] refactor/db

Type to narrow the list (case-insensitive substring match), use arrow keys to navigate, Space to toggle, Ctrl-U to clear the filter, and Enter to confirm. Branches you toggle stay selected even if a later filter hides them.

Step 4: Select your mode

git-paw presents a mode picker:

CLI assignment mode:
> Same CLI for all branches
  Different CLI per branch

Select Same CLI for all branches and press Enter.

Step 5: Select your CLI

Pick which AI CLI to use on all selected branches. Detected CLIs are listed by display name, with the binary in parentheses:

Select AI CLI for all branches:
  Antigravity (agy)
> Claude (claude)
  Codex (codex)

Step 6: git-paw does the rest

git-paw now:

1. Creates a git worktree for each selected branch
2. Creates a tmux session named paw-my-app
3. Opens one pane per branch
4. Launches your chosen CLI in each pane
5. Saves the session state for later recovery

The worktrees land under .git-paw/worktrees/ (for example .git-paw/worktrees/feat-auth/) in a repo set up with git paw init, or beside the repo (../my-app-feat-auth/) when no worktree_placement is configured — see Worktree Placement. Nothing else is printed on success: git-paw attaches you straight to the session. (From a non-interactive terminal it prints Session 'paw-my-app' started in detached mode. and a tmux attach -t paw-my-app hint instead.)

You’re now inside a tmux session with three panes, each running Claude in its own worktree. Each pane’s border label shows its pane index and branch (with [broker] enabled = true, the dashboard takes pane 0 and the agents start at pane 1):

┌─── 0: feat/api ───────────────┬─── 1: feat/auth ──────────────┐
│                                │                                │
│  Claude is ready to help...    │  Claude is ready to help...    │
│                                │                                │
├─── 2: refactor/db ────────────┴────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                 │
│  Claude is ready to help...                                     │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Mouse mode is enabled by default — click a pane to switch to it, or drag borders to resize.

Non-interactive shortcut

Skip all prompts by passing flags:

git paw start --cli claude --branches feat/auth,feat/api,refactor/db

What’s next

• Switch panes: Click with mouse, or use Ctrl-b then arrow keys
• Detach: Press Ctrl-b d to detach from tmux (session keeps running)
• Reattach: Run git paw attach (or git paw again — it detects the active session and reattaches)
• Stop: Run git paw stop to kill tmux but keep worktrees
• Purge: Run git paw purge to remove everything

See the User Guide for the full details.