Cleanup Merged Branches

Cleanup Merged Branches

This skill safely deletes git branches that have been merged into the main branch.

Procedure

1. Fetch and Prune Remote

git fetch --prune

2. List Merged Branches (Preview)

# Local branches merged into main (excluding main itself)
git branch --merged main | grep -v "main" | grep -v "^\*"

# Remote branches merged into main
git branch -r --merged main | grep -v "main" | grep -v "HEAD"

3. Delete Local Branches

git branch --merged main | grep -v "main" | grep -v "^\*" | xargs -r git branch -d

4. Delete Remote Branches

# For each remote branch (e.g., origin/feature-branch)
git push origin --delete <branch-name>

Safety Notes

• Always preview before deleting (-d is safe, -D force deletes)
• Never delete main - the grep filters exclude it
• Confirm with user before deleting remote branches (destructive action)
• Protected branches - some branches may be protected on GitHub

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