Branch Helper

Lost in branches? Never forget where you were.

A lightweight CLI tool that digs through your shell history and shows you the git commands you've recently used. No config, no setup — just install and go.

Why?

You're deep in a project, juggling 5+ branches, and suddenly you can't remember the name of that feature branch you were on 20 minutes ago. Sound familiar?

Branch Helper reads your shell history and instantly shows your recent git commands, so you can find that lost branch in seconds.

Install

npm install -g @aakritbhandari/branch-helper

Usage

Show your last n git commands

branchhelper <n>

n can be any number from 1 to 20.

$ branchhelper 5
Last 5 git commands:
  1. git checkout feature/auth
  2. git pull origin main
  3. git commit -m "fix: resolve login bug"
  4. git checkout main
  5. git stash pop

Filter by prefix

branchhelper <n> <prefix>

The prefix matches against everything after git in the command.

$ branchhelper 3 checkout
Last 3 git commands starting with "checkout":
  1. git checkout feature/auth
  2. git checkout main
  3. git checkout develop

Or filter by any subcommand:

$ branchhelper 5 commit     # recent commits
$ branchhelper 3 push       # recent pushes
$ branchhelper 4 stash      # recent stash commands

Features

• Zero dependencies — uses only Node.js built-ins
• Cross-platform — supports zsh, bash, and PowerShell
• Deduped & ordered — shows unique commands, most recent first
• Fast — reads directly from your shell history file

Supported Shells

| Platform | Shell | History File | | ------------- | ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | Linux / macOS | zsh | ~/.zsh_history | | Linux / macOS | bash | ~/.bash_history | | Windows | PowerShell | %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\PSReadLine\ConsoleHost_history.txt |

License

Fair

Author

Aakrit Bhandari — GitHub

If this helped you, give it a star on GitHub!