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Dev.to
Dev.to
7/12/2026
Agent works one repo at a time. Work doesn't.

Agent works one repo at a time. Work doesn't.

Short summary

A developer's journey solving polyrepo AI-agent workflows: single-directory approaches fail due to repo crawling and working-copy locking, --add-dir breaks toolchain resolution, and the solution is git worktrees arranged in a real directory tree. The post introduces Orbit, an open-source tool that manages shared repo pools and per-task workspaces so one agent can work across backend, contract, and frontend repos with consistent context.

  • Single-directory and --add-dir approaches both break for polyrepo agent workflows
  • Git worktrees in a real directory tree enable cross-repo context and parallel task isolation
  • Orbit is an open-source tool that manages shared repo pools and per-task workspaces

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