gitsweep

Finds stale local branches and clears them out safely. It only targets branches that are fully merged into your default branch or whose upstream has been deleted on the remote. It never touches your current branch, the default branch, or protected names like main, master and develop. No dependencies, no AI.

Install

npm install -g @bobfromarcher/gitsweep
# or once:
npx @bobfromarcher/gitsweep

Usage

gitsweep [path] [options]

| Option | Description | | --- | --- | | (none) | Dry run. Show exactly what would be removed | | --prune | Delete the sweepable branches (asks for confirmation first) | | --force, -f | With --prune, skip the prompt and force-delete | | --base <branch> | Branch to test "merged" against (default: your origin HEAD) | | --json | Output JSON, delete nothing | | -h, --help | Show help | | -v, --version | Show version |

Examples

gitsweep                 # safe dry run
gitsweep --prune         # clean up, with a confirmation
gitsweep --prune -f      # clean up, no prompt
gitsweep --base develop  # treat develop as the integration branch
gitsweep --json | jq '.sweep[].name'

Why it is safe

• Dry run by default. Nothing is deleted unless you pass --prune.
• Merged only. Branches are checked against git branch --merged, so anything with unmerged work is kept and listed as unmerged.
• Hard guards. The current branch, base branch and protected names are excluded before anything is considered.
• Merged branches use a safe git branch -d. Only branches whose remote is already gone use -D.

Development

git clone https://github.com/bobfromarcher/gitsweep
cd gitsweep
node test/test.js

CI runs the suite on Node 18, 20 and 22 across Linux, macOS and Windows.

License

MIT, bobfromarcher.