/branch question

[seldaneg]

I have some questions about how /branch works

1. Is there an easy way for me to launch up a dev server when i create a /branch before using merge? in other words lets say I want to do npm run dev -- --port 3005 --host so I can test out my changes, is there an in-built way of doing that? or do I have to go back to my terminal and cd to the work tree folder and run it from there?

2. Also, if I do /branch, and lets pretend I do a /compact at some point or even restart my computer before I /merge, when I come back, how do I tell Coder to resume working on that specific branch and allowing /merge to merge it for me to main tree?

[zemaj]

1. We've just added in terminal (launch with $ command) and hooks https://github.com/just-every/code/blob/main/docs/config.md#project-hooks

I'm not sure the hooks will work in this situation, but we could probably extend it? But also it sounds like you want a manual workflow so you could do $ npm run dev -- --port 3005 --host ?

2. You should be able to see the branch location in the header. It look like Directory: ~/.code/working/code/branches/code-branch-20250921-232724

The branches are just git worktrees, so you can go to ~/.code/working/code/branches/code-branch-20250921-232724 and start code there to keep working on it.

Conversely if you can just ask code in your root folder to start working or merge in the worktree (code-branch-20250921-232724 in this case).

Not super user friendly :) Might find some other approach down the track.

[seldaneg]

@zemaj

Is it possible you would consider implementing a method similar to how Claude Code addressed this issue? It's a general solution that I think you might like.

Claude Code lets you hit ctrl-B which lets you enter a custom bash command that is run in the background of the directory you are working in. I believe the reason they implemented it this way is because there's no way you know exactly what my "run developer server" command is or even exactly what port I would want, so this would give users flexibility

The custom bash command isn't just for running servers. You can literally use it for any command manually (eg updating something with Brew without having to make a new terminal window).

Two ways to implement it would be

1. using ctrl-B like Claude Code
2. Creating a new command /bash which would bypass Codex entirely and just run the typed in command in the background in a bash window at the directory you are working on