Lifecycle & storage

A workspace has state at two different layers:

• Runtime state in AnyHarness: the authoritative workspace record, sessions, ordered events, transcript, and local agent artifacts.
• The checkout: files in a linked local folder or a Proliferate-managed worktree on your machine.

Removing a managed checkout can preserve runtime history. Purging a runtime workspace does not. Keep the two operations separate.

Creating a workspace#

• Local checkout: registers a folder you already cloned. Proliferate does not create or own that checkout.
• New worktree: creates a managed git worktree and branch on your machine, then runs the repo's Local setup script.

Both get the same chat, terminal, file, and review surfaces. Isolation and storage differ.

If setup fails the workspace stays visible with the failure, so you can retry or recreate it.

Archiving#

Archive means "hide this from the UI". It does not delete anything or free disk.

Desktop records a local visibility preference. The runtime record, sessions, transcript, and files are unchanged.

There is no archive screen to browse, so treat Archive as one-way for now.

Pruning managed worktrees#

Pruning is checkout cleanup. It removes an old managed worktree while keeping its runtime workspace and chat history, and never touches the local checkout you linked as a repo root.

Before removing one, the runtime checks for blockers: uncommitted changes, unresolved git state, live sessions or terminals, queued prompts, running operations. Blocked worktrees are left alone.

Under Settings → Pruning, Ideal worktrees sets the per-repository target the pressure indicator and retention policy use. Automatic retention is off unless an operator turns it on, and raising the target never makes an unsafe worktree deletable.

The Details view lists discovered runtimes, their worktrees, git status, and approximate checkout and history sizes.

Deleting runtime history#

Delete workspace... on a Local worktree and Delete on an attached row in the Pruning inventory use the destructive AnyHarness purge path. After a confirmation and safety preflight, it removes:

• The managed checkout.
• The AnyHarness workspace record and sessions.
• Raw and normalized runtime events and transcript history.
• Runtime-local agent artifacts.

Git commits, branches, and pull requests survive.

An orphaned worktree row has no runtime workspace behind it. Deleting one removes just that folder, after its own safety checks.