Git Branch Cleaner

Interactive CLI to clean up local Git branches. Delete merged branches, stale branches (no commits in 30+ days), or select your own — with dry-run mode and safety confirmations.

Tired of your git branch listing being 40 lines long? git-branch-cleaner gives you an interactive checklist of branches to delete, with smart defaults.

Features

• 🧹 Merged branch detection — finds branches fully merged into HEAD
• ⏰ Stale branch detection — finds branches with no commits in N days (default: 30)
• ✅ Interactive selection — checkbox UI to pick branches for deletion
• 🏃 Dry-run mode — see what would be deleted before committing
• 🔒 Safety confirmations — double-check before deleting
• 💪 Force mode — skip confirmations for scripting
• 🎯 Smart defaults — shows merged + stale branches out of the box
• 🎨 Color-coded output — at-a-glance branch status

Installation

# Global install (recommended)
npm install -g git-branch-cleaner

# Or run via npx
npx git-branch-cleaner

# Or use as a dependency
npm install --save-dev git-branch-cleaner

Usage

# Run in any Git repository (interactive)
git-branch-cleaner

# Dry-run (show what would be deleted)
git-branch-cleaner --dry-run

# Only show merged branches
git-branch-cleaner --merged

# Only show stale branches (custom threshold)
git-branch-cleaner --stale --days 60

# Show all branches for manual selection
git-branch-cleaner --all

# Skip confirmation prompts (for automation)
git-branch-cleaner --force

# Combine options
git-branch-cleaner --merged --stale --dry-run

Options

| Option | Alias | Default | Description | |--------|-------|---------|-------------| | --dry-run | -d | false | Show what would be deleted without deleting | | --force | -f | false | Skip safety confirmation prompts | | --merged | -m | false | Only show branches merged into HEAD | | --stale | -s | false | Only show branches with no recent commits | | --all | -a | false | Show all local branches for selection | | --days | | 30 | Days threshold for stale detection | | --no-color | | false | Disable colored output |

How It Works

When you run git-branch-cleaner (without flags), it:

1. Scans all local branches (excluding your current branch)
2. Detects merged branches — branches whose tip is reachable from HEAD
3. Detects stale branches — branches with no commits in the last 30 days
4. Shows an interactive checklist of the merged + stale branches
5. Prompts for confirmation before deleting
6. Deletes using git branch -d (safe delete) or -D (force delete if needed)

$ git-branch-cleaner

🔍 Found 3 merged + 2 stale branches

? Select branches to delete:
  ◻ old-feature [merged]
  ◻ bugfix-123 [merged]
  ◻ wip-styles [merged]
  ◻ experiment-1 [21d stale]
  ◻ experiment-2 [45d stale]
(Move up and down to reveal more choices)

? Delete 3 branch(es)? (y/N)

Use Cases

• Weekly cleanup — keep your local branches list manageable
• CI/CD automation — use --force in scripts to auto-delete merged branches
• Onboarding — run on a legacy repo with hundreds of stale branches
• Pre-PR checklist — clean up before submitting your next pull request

Comparison

| Feature | git-branch-cleaner | Manual git branch -d | |---------|-------------------|----------------------| | Interactive UI | ✅ Checkbox selection | ❌ | | Merged detection | ✅ Automatic | ⚠️ Manual check | | Stale detection | ✅ Configurable | ❌ | | Dry-run | ✅ Built-in | ❌ | | Safety confirmations | ✅ Always | ❌ Accidental deletes | | Bulk delete | ✅ One command | ❌ One at a time |

Related

• json-to-types — Convert JSON to TypeScript interfaces instantly
• env-validator — Validate .env files against .env.example

License

MIT © SCL339