Git Cleanup

Git Cleanup

Clean local branches (except main and current branch) and non-origin remotes. Useful after reviewing multiple PRs that leave behind tracking branches and contributor remotes.

Workflow

1. Survey

Run these in parallel:

git branch
git remote
git status --short
git stash list

Present a summary of how many branches and remotes will be removed.

2. Safety Checks — Ask Before Proceeding

Stop and ask for confirmation if any of these are true:

• Current branch is NOT main
• Working tree has uncommitted changes or stashes
• Any branch is ahead of its upstream

List unmerged branches separately and let the user decide.

3. Delete Branches

# Safe delete first (fails on unmerged branches)
git branch | grep -v '^\*' | grep -v '^\s*main$' | xargs git branch -d 2>&1

# Force-delete only with explicit user approval
git branch -D <branch>

4. Remove Remotes

git remote | grep -v '^origin$' | xargs -I{} git remote remove {}

5. Confirm

git branch && echo "---" && git remote

Report what was cleaned up.

Key Rules

• NEVER delete main or the current checked-out branch
• NEVER force-delete unmerged branches without user confirmation
• If in doubt, ask