[Feature Request] wt list --watch

[bswan0002]

Would love a --watch flag on wt list that re-renders the table on an interval (e.g. every 3-5 seconds).

Main use case: keeping a dedicated terminal pane as a live dashboard while running multiple Claude Code agents in parallel. The 🤖/💬 markers make wt list a natural agent monitor, but re-running it manually breaks the flow.

watch -n 5 -c 'wt list --full' works as a stopgap but flickers and doesn't leverage the existing progressive rendering.

Similar tool gwq supports gwq status --watch, so there is prior art in the space.

[worktrunk-bot]

Thanks for the suggestion! This is a feature request rather than a bug, so I'll leave it for a maintainer to evaluate and prioritize.

[max-sixty]

with --no-progressive and a watchexec (or similar), do we get the same result?

I think the idea is cool, but I'm not sure there's much we can do that is more granular than just that; can we do more than just poll?

[bswan0002]

with --no-progressive and a watchexec (or similar), do we get the same result?

watchexec doesn't work for CI status, and ideally the check on CI status would poll at a longer interval vs agent status to avoid spamming network requests while keeping agent status more responsive. Can also be a bit clunky setting up watchexec depending on worktree path config, whereas wt already knows what files to watch.

[max-sixty]

watchexec doesn't work for CI status

can I ask why not?

ideally the check on CI status would poll at a longer interval vs agent status to avoid spamming network requests while keeping agent status more responsive.

totally — we already cache this for 30-60s (IIRC) to avoid GitHub rate limits!

[bswan0002]

watchexec doesn't work for CI status

can I ask why not?

If there is no update to local filesystem but there is an update to remote CI status, watchexec wouldn't fire.

ideally the check on CI status would poll at a longer interval vs agent status to avoid spamming network requests while keeping agent status more responsive.

totally — we already cache this for 30-60s (IIRC) to avoid GitHub rate limits!

Nice!

With your feedback I got Claude to write me a script that I think should get the desired functionality. I'll test it out at work tomorrow and report back here with a snippet + any additional notes after playing around with it some.

I appreciate your responsiveness :)

[worktrunk-bot]

A couple of tips that may help with the watch script:

• --no-progressive disables the progressive rendering (it's a hidden flag). Without it, wt list auto-enables progressive mode on a TTY, which would cause the table to redraw mid-render. If the script is piping output, progressive is already disabled automatically, but --no-progressive makes it explicit.
• --format=json gives structured output if the script needs to parse status programmatically rather than re-rendering the table.

Looking forward to hearing how it works out.

[max-sixty]

great @bswan0002! let us know

(also forgive @worktrunk-bot for their intrusion, will iterate some more on when it should jump in...)

[max-sixty]

you're correct that watchexec isn't sufficient, but check out https://github.com/sachaos/viddy