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ADE has one rule for organizing your work: a repository is one project, and every working tree of that repository is a lane inside it.
  • The repository’s main checkout is the project root. It becomes the primary lane, which always exists and is edit-protected.
  • Lanes ADE creates for you live under .ade/worktrees/ inside the project.
  • Worktrees you created yourself with git worktree add can be attached as lanes too, wherever they live on disk.
This is why a worktree should not become its own project: it would split the same repository across two project entries, with separate lanes, chats, and state for what is really one codebase.

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Opening a worktree

If you point ADE at a directory that is a linked worktree, ADE recognizes it and shows you what it found:
  • Already a lane — the folder is already attached to its project. ADE offers to open that project and jump straight to the lane, including its live status and any agents working in it.
  • Not a lane yet — ADE offers to attach it as a lane in the owning project and take you there. This is the recommended path.
  • Owning repo not added yet — ADE offers to add the main repository as the project and open the worktree as a lane in it, in one step.
You can still choose Open as a separate project if you really want the worktree to stand alone — for example, if your main clone is a bare repository and there is no primary checkout to open.

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Merging a stray worktree project

If you added a worktree as a standalone project in the past, ADE marks it in the recent projects list with a worktree of … badge. From that row you can merge it into the owning project as a lane.
Merging re-homes the folder as a lane and removes the standalone project entry. Chats and sessions created while it was a standalone project stay under that retired project — they remain searchable, but they do not move into the owning project.

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Bare repositories

Some workflows keep a bare clone plus a set of worktrees, with no main checkout at all. ADE cannot open a bare repository as a project today, so in that layout opening a worktree as its own project is the right call. ADE detects this case and skips the prompt.