Repositories

A Repository is a git source Cohalen has connected: your own clone on disk, or one cloned from a remote. Every Workspace branches from exactly one Repository. The sidebar lists every connected Repository at once, each as a group of its Workspaces, so parallel work across projects stays on one screen.

Connect

Two ways in:

• Open connects a folder that is already a git repository. Picking any folder inside one connects the repo root. If the folder is not a git repository, Cohalen offers to initialize one first; it never runs git init silently. If the picked folder sits inside a larger repository without being its root, Cohalen asks whether to connect that root or initialize the folder as its own Repository, so a stray .git in a parent directory cannot hijack the connection.
• Clone writes a full working copy from a remote into Cohalen's managed data directory and connects it.

The connected list is a set: connecting a Repository that is already connected reopens the existing entry instead of duplicating it. A Workspace's own folder is a worktree, not a Repository, and is refused on Open; connect its source Repository instead.

The sidebar

Each Repository group shows its active Workspaces, with an expandable History of archived ones underneath (see Workspaces). Opening a Repository moves it to the front of the list, so the projects you touch most stay near the top.

When a folder moves

A connected Repository whose folder no longer resolves on disk, because it was renamed, moved, or deleted, shows as Missing. Nothing is dropped silently. Relocate re-points the same record at the folder's new location, keeping its Workspaces and its place in the list; a rename is a Relocate. If the source is gone for good, Forget removes it.

Forget

Forget drops a Repository from the connected list. Cohalen reclaims only its own scratch: the Workspaces' worktrees under the managed directory are removed, and the branches Cohalen created for them are deleted. Your working copy and your own branches are untouched, so you can reconnect the Repository later.

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Next: Workspaces, the unit of parallel work that branches from a Repository.