So how is this different from git worktrees exactly ?
replies(2):
I personally find this annoying. I usually like to keep one pristine and always current working copy of main (and develop if applicable) around for search and other analysis tasks[1]. Worktrees would be ideal and efficient but due to the mentioned restriction I have to either waste space for a separate clone or do some ugly workarounds to keep the worktree on the branch while not keeping it on the branch.
jujutsu workspace are much nicer in that regard.
[1] I know there are tons of ways search and analyze in git but over the years I found a pristine working copy to be the most versatile solution.
Tools should adapt to us and not the other way around, but if you are stuck with git, there's a slightly different workflow that supports your use case: detached head. Whenever I check out branches that I don't intend on committing to directly, I checkout e.g. origin/main. This can be checked out in many worktrees. I actually find it more ergonomic and did this before using worktrees: there are no extra steps in keeping a local main pointer up to date.
The complication comes from trying to stay current. With a regular worktree I could just pull, but now I have to remember the branch, fetch all and reset hard to the remembered branch.