One of the frustrating parts of reviewing pull requests, whether you’re creating one or reviewing it, is constantly switching between your branch and the PR branch. Some developers prefer reviewing PRs directly on platforms like GitHub or Azure DevOps, while others like to check out the branch locally for a more in-depth review. But switching branches mid-development can be a hassle.
There are a few ways to deal with this. One option is using git stash. You stash your changes, switch to the PR branch, then switch back and apply the stash when you’re done. The downside? If the stash gets lost, you may be in trouble.
What I’ve found more reliable and have been using for a long time is git worktrees. Instead of constantly switching branches, you clone the repo into a separate worktree, giving you two completely independent checkouts.
git worktree add ../pr-branch-name origin/pr-branch-name
You can remove worktree using git worktree remove ../pr-branch-name or just keep it for later use.
This way, you can jump between tasks without stashing changes or disrupting your workflow. It makes handling PRs much smoother.