Add wt step sync (or similar) for merging main into feature branch without rebase

[hugobarauna]

Problem

When a feature branch has already been pushed to origin for code review, the current wt step rebase workflow requires force-pushing after syncing with main, which rewrites shared history.

In traditional git workflows, once a branch is shared/pushed for review, the common practice is to merge main INTO the feature branch (rather than rebase) to avoid rewriting history and requiring force pushes.

Current workaround

Use plain git commands:

git fetch origin
git merge origin/main

Proposed solution

A new step command like wt step sync or wt step update that:

1. Fetches from origin
2. Merges the default branch (or specified target) INTO the current branch
3. Preserves commit history (no rebase)

Example usage:

wt step sync          # merge origin/main into current branch
wt step sync develop  # merge origin/develop into current branch

Use case

1. Create feature branch with wt switch --create feature
2. Work, commit, push for code review
3. Main branch advances while PR is in review
4. Need to sync with main → use wt step sync instead of wt step rebase
5. Push normally (no force push needed)
6. When approved, use wt merge as usual

This would complement the existing rebase-based workflow for scenarios where history preservation matters.

[max-sixty]

yes I have a local alias for git merge (wt config state default-branch), which is similar to this

not opposed but slightly hesitant to add it:

• we don't do any fetch operations at the moment. while fetch isn't destructive, technically it's a mutation
• I don't think we want to try to encapsulate all git operations; we should expect that users do use git. and this doesn't encapsulate that much
• (we don't use it in wt merge, which was the main reason to have wt rebase)

Though I agree that it's used a lot. I would be up for leaving this open, see if we get any other thoughts, see if there's something else we could add to make it more worthwhile...

[hugobarauna]

Yes, I myself am having some second thoughts.

At the end, I just git merged main into my work tree’s branch. I guess I did not now I could do that, I am learning how my workflow evolves with using worktrees.

All that to say that I‘m not sure this is a good idea anymore. If you want to close this issue, it’s 100% ok for me.

Or yes, maybe see if more people find it useful.

[max-sixty]

The alias feature has shipped since this was closed (docs). For anyone who wants this workflow, it's a one-liner in your user config:

# ~/.config/worktrunk/config.toml
[aliases]
sync = "git fetch origin && git merge origin/{{ default_branch }}"

Then wt step sync fetches and merges the default branch into your current branch.

This was written by Claude Code on behalf of @max-sixty