[scottames]

What changed

Replace Worktrunk with native Stax worktree creation, selection and removal. hwtc branch now explicitly starts independent agent work from trunk, even when invoked inside a tracked feature branch; --base branch and --base @ select an explicit parent.

• Preserve hw / hwt / hwtc, desktop space reuse, primary-space creation, project labels and the caller's directory. Retain legacy Herdr and Zellij workflows and the Graphite-only bridge without migrating unrelated Graphite functionality.
• Keep sibling paths and existing checkouts/branch metadata. Work around Stax's ambiguous main selector and broken rich/JSON inventory in legacy .bare layouts using read-only Git discovery.
• Use blocking Stax post_create setup: copy ignored regular files without overwriting destinations, optional thts init --no-agents --force, then conditional trunk check. Failures stop launch and leave the checkout available for repair.
• Preserve git_status stack/path output and replace the worktree status pane. Fix stale response parsing in the already-disabled legacy Herdr split layout.

Removed

Worktrunk package/lock entry, Fish shell integration/completions, global config, Task/Agent columns, pane aliases, package/agent-skill references and custom Stax tracking/untracking hooks (including stax-post-remove.py). Chezmoi removal entries retire the deployed files. Historical changelog and release-note fixtures remain.

Safety tradeoffs / changed behavior

git_prune --apply now prunes stale bookkeeping only; it retains every live worktree and branch. Native Stax cleanup lacks age/activity guards, and stax wt rm --delete-branch does not reparent surviving children in the tested releases. Rather than reproduce another lifecycle manager or weaken safety, live removals are explicit through Stax and branches remain tracked.

Dry-run remains the default. Apply still requires a clean primary checkout on trunk, validates metadata, and pulls --ff-only. Stale entries have a fixed two-day floor; since native prune has no expiry argument, one young/unknown missing entry retains all stale entries. Staged or interrupted state blocks pruning. --min-age is removed.

Other changes:

• Warm-slot recycling disabled to preserve stable branch/path identities.
• Native picker selects existing worktrees; use hwtc instead of Worktrunk's Alt-c creation. Worktrunk-specific selectors such as pr:123 are not emulated.
• Ignored-file seeding is a plain cold copy, skips symlinks, and does not implement .worktreeinclude. Project hooks can use targeted copies/dependency installers.
• Hook failures leave the branch/worktree behind; re-entry does not retry post_create. Repair setup before opening the agent.
• Native wtsc intentionally retains Stax's current-branch parenting semantics; use hwtc for independent agents.

Validation

• 40 Python tests passed with actual Git, Fish 4.9.3 and the repository's pinned Stax 0.118.2.
• 19 real-CLI worktree/cleanup tests passed on current Stax 0.120.0.
• Four Fish suites passed: git status, Zellij worktrees, project labels and legacy Herdr workspace workflow.
• Includes a real interactive Stax picker in a PTY; explicit/default parent selection; ordinary/bare layouts; existing checkout metadata preservation; hook/copy/setup failures; Graphite isolation; clean/default-branch/ff-only guards; dirty/locked/active retention; stale-entry age and staged-state protection; completions/abbreviations.
• Changed Fish syntax, TOML parsing and git diff --check passed.
• Trunk lint could not run: both normal and CI-mode attempts failed starting its local daemon (socket: Operation not permitted). No lint pass is claimed. Herdr/Zellij transports are mocked; live user sessions and macOS were not exercised.

Manual migration

See docs/worktrees.md for full behavior, upstream findings and migration steps. Review/deploy with chezmoi, restart Fish, and uninstall the now-unrequested Worktrunk package when satisfied. Keep existing checkouts and metadata; translate project-local Worktrunk hooks to stax.toml, export any Task/Agent values needed, and review any old warm slots. Repository-local Worktrunk state is not deleted automatically.

No chezmoi apply was run. Leave unmerged for review.