Spin Up a Git Worktree for an Emergency Hotfix

Keep your feature branch intact while patching production in a separate working tree.

When to use

You are midway through a large feature, but a production regression needs a quick patch. Worktrees provide a clean checkout without juggling stashes.

Pre-flight

Confirm disk space for another copy of the repository.
Know which commit or branch represents the deployment you must patch (for example, main or a release tag).

Steps

Create a worktree pointing at the branch that mirrors production.

git fetch origin main
git worktree add ../repo-hotfix origin/main

Switch into the new directory and create a hotfix branch.
```
cd ../repo-hotfix
git checkout -b hotfix/rollbar-init
```
Implement and test the fix without disturbing your original working directory.
```
git commit -am "fix: ensure rollbar initializes before use"
```
Push the branch for review and merge as usual.
```
git push -u origin hotfix/rollbar-init
```

Once merged and deployed, clean up the worktree and branch.

cd ../command-library-astro-app
git worktree prune
git branch -d hotfix/rollbar-init
git push origin --delete hotfix/rollbar-init

Verification

git worktree list no longer shows the hotfix directory after cleanup.
Monitoring or release dashboards confirm the hotfix is live.

Follow-up

Document the incident or update the runbook so the next responder knows the context.
Consider adding automated tests to prevent the regression from resurfacing.