Branch Selection

Repo Overview

After the app validates the local config for a repo, you land on the Repo Overview screen. It lists every branch in the local clone, grouped into:

• Current — the branch checked out right now.
• Local — branches that exist in the local clone but aren’t currently checked out.
• Remote — branches that exist on origin but haven’t been checked out locally yet.

A filter input narrows the list as you type. Refresh runs git fetch --all --prune against the clone so the Remote group reflects what’s actually on GitHub.

A small Edit project config button sits in the top-right corner — it re-opens the wizard with the current values pre-filled. See Repo onboarding for what it covers.

Note

PR selection is not on this screen. To check out a PR head branch and edit it as a PR, see PR Mode.

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Switching branches

You can switch branches from two places:

• The Repo Overview — click any branch in the Local or Remote groups.
• The branch selector in the editor header — once you’re inside a project, the unified shell’s context dropdown lets you switch without bouncing back to the overview.

Either path runs the same operation: a git fetch <remote> <branch> followed by a hard checkout of the remote branch (git checkout -B <branch> <remote>/<branch>). The local branch is reset to match the remote tip.

Caution

Because the app-managed clone is the only writer to its working tree, the switch is unconditional — there’s no “working tree dirty” prompt and no stash/discard step. If you’ve been editing files in this clone outside the app, don’t: use a separate checkout.

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Unsaved drafts on switch

Drafts in the editor are typed cell edits that haven’t been saved as a commit yet. They’re stored in app storage, keyed per (repo, branch, project) — so:

• Drafts on main stay attached to main. Switching to feature/x doesn’t move or destroy them.
• When you switch back to main, the drafts are still there.

If you trigger a switch while drafts exist on the current branch, the app shows an informational dialog:

You have N unsaved drafts on <current-branch> — continue?

This is a heads-up, not a destructive prompt:

• Continue — completes the switch. Your drafts stay on the source branch and you’ll see them again when you switch back.
• Cancel — stays on the current branch. Nothing changes.

Tip

If you’re coming from older docs that mentioned a Stash / Discard prompt: that machinery has been removed. Drafts survive branch switches by design.

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Audit trail

Every checkout — successful or failed — is appended to the daily-rotated log file. On macOS:

~/Library/Application Support/io.stape.your-last-translation-tool/logs/app.log.YYYY-MM-DD

Successful switches write a branch_checkout event with:

• from_branch
• to_branch
• head_sha
• action

Failures write:

• from_branch
• to_branch
• error_kind

See Troubleshooting for equivalent paths on Windows and Linux and for tips on reading the log.