Install

What Repolane needs, and the four commands that set it up.

Install

git clone https://github.com/aj-coder-hustle/repolane.git && cd repolane
./lane install        # puts `lane` and the long-form commands on your PATH
lane init             # asks two questions, sets the machine up
lane add <git-url>    # or: lane add ~/path/to/a/checkout/you/already/have

lane install links lane and the long-form commands (lane-start, lane-run, lane-memory, …) into ~/.local/bin by default. Pass a different directory if you keep your binaries elsewhere: ./lane install /usr/local/bin. If the directory is not on your PATH yet, the command tells you the line to add.

Requirements


git	required — worktrees are the whole mechanism
python3	required — the hook dispatcher and the board are stdlib Python
bash	required — every command is a bash script
gh	optional — without it you lose pull request status and `lane gh`
Claude Code	optional — the commands work on their own; the hooks only matter when Claude is driving

There is nothing to compile and no package to install. Repolane is a folder of scripts with no dependencies beyond the above.

Tested on macOS and Linux. On Windows, use WSL.

Where everything lives

The folder you cloned is the control plane. After lane init it looks like this:

lane/
  repos/        every repo you work on, once, as a clean mirror
  lanes/        one folder per piece of work in progress
  registry/     the repo list, and one file per lane
  memory/       what Claude has learned, by scope
  knowledge/    your preferences and conventions
  scripts/      the commands themselves

repos/ and lanes/ are ignored by git — they are machine state, described by registry/.

Bringing repos in

lane add https://github.com/your-org/web.git
lane add ~/code/api                 # an existing checkout works too

Each one is cloned or copied into repos/<name> and registered. The mirror stays on its default branch forever: nothing is ever edited there, and every lane’s worktrees share its object store.

Starting work

lane start ABC-123 web api
cd lanes/ABC-123 && claude

That creates branch ABC-123 in both repos, a worktree of each under lanes/ABC-123/, and a lane file at registry/lanes/ABC-123.md that records what this work is and which repos are in scope.

Read Concepts next.