Switching Branches

Overview

The branch selector is located at the top of the file explorer interface and provides access to all available branches within the project. It displays the currently active branch and, when expanded, lists all other branches along with their metadata. Switching branches changes the file system context of the file explorer, loading the selected branch's file tree, snapshot, and transaction history.

How to Switch Branches

To switch to a different branch, click the branch selector dropdown at the top of the file explorer. The dropdown displays a list of all available branches in the project. Each entry shows the branch name, the latest task description, and a change summary indicating the number of additions and removals. Select the desired branch from the list.

Upon selection, the file explorer reloads to display the file system state of the selected branch. The tree view is refreshed, the footer updates to display the new branch's current snapshot hash, and all subsequent file operations apply to the newly selected branch. The switch is immediate and does not require a page reload.

Branch Context

After switching branches, all file operations (creating, uploading, renaming, moving, deleting files and folders) are applied to the selected branch only. Other branches are not affected. The currently active branch is always displayed in the branch selector header, providing a persistent indicator of the working context.

When switching branches, the expand/collapse state of folders from the previous branch is not carried over. The file tree loads with the default collapsed state for the new branch, and folder states are persisted independently for each branch in the browser's local storage.

WARNING

Switching branches does not affect running programs or active deployments on devices. Branch switching only changes which version of the file system is displayed and editable in the file explorer. To deploy a different branch's code to a device, an explicit build and deploy operation is required after switching.