Automate Cleanup of Stale Merged Branches

Intermediate10 minTrending

Remove local and remote branches that have already been merged, keeping your repository clean and navigable.

Prerequisites

-Git installed
-A repository with multiple merged branches
-Push access to the remote

Steps

Fetch and prune remote tracking branches

Sync with the remote and remove local references to branches that no longer exist on the remote.

$ git fetch --prune

Run this regularly or add it to your git config with `git config --global fetch.prune true` to auto-prune on every fetch.

List all merged local branches

Show local branches that have been fully merged into main. The grep excludes main, master, and the current branch.

$ git branch --merged main | grep -v 'main\|master\|\*'

Always verify the list before deleting. Some long-lived branches like release or develop may appear as merged.

Delete merged local branches

Pipe the merged branch list into xargs to delete each one. The -d flag only deletes fully merged branches, so it is safe.

$ git branch --merged main | grep -v 'main\|master\|\*' | xargs -r git branch -d

The -r flag on xargs prevents an error when there are no branches to delete.

List merged remote branches

Show remote tracking branches that have been merged into main, stripping the origin/ prefix for readability.

$ git branch -r --merged main | grep -v 'main\|master\|HEAD' | sed 's/origin\///'

Delete merged remote branches

Delete each merged remote branch. The -I {} placeholder passes each branch name to the push --delete command.

$ git branch -r --merged main | grep -v 'main\|master\|HEAD' | sed 's/origin\///' | xargs -r -I {} git push origin --delete {}

This is irreversible on the remote. Make sure no one else is working on these branches before deleting.

Verify cleanup results

List all remaining local and remote branches to confirm the stale ones have been removed.

$ git branch -a

Full Script

full-script.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# branch-cleanup.sh — Remove merged local and remote branches
set -euo pipefail

BASE_BRANCH="${1:-main}"

echo "Fetching and pruning remote references..."
git fetch --prune

echo ""
echo "=== Merged local branches ==="
MERGED_LOCAL=$(git branch --merged "$BASE_BRANCH" | grep -v "main\|master\|\*" || true)
if [ -z "$MERGED_LOCAL" ]; then
  echo "No merged local branches to clean up."
else
  echo "$MERGED_LOCAL"
  echo ""
  read -rp "Delete these local branches? (y/N) " confirm
  if [[ "$confirm" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
    echo "$MERGED_LOCAL" | xargs -r git branch -d
    echo "Local branches deleted."
  fi
fi

echo ""
echo "=== Merged remote branches ==="
MERGED_REMOTE=$(git branch -r --merged "$BASE_BRANCH" | grep -v "main\|master\|HEAD" | sed 's/origin\///' || true)
if [ -z "$MERGED_REMOTE" ]; then
  echo "No merged remote branches to clean up."
else
  echo "$MERGED_REMOTE"
  echo ""
  read -rp "Delete these remote branches? (y/N) " confirm
  if [[ "$confirm" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
    echo "$MERGED_REMOTE" | xargs -r -I {} git push origin --delete {}
    echo "Remote branches deleted."
  fi
fi

echo ""
echo "Cleanup complete. Remaining branches:"
git branch -a

FAQ

Discussion

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#!/usr/bin/env bash # branch-cleanup.sh — Remove merged local and remote branches set -euo pipefail BASE_BRANCH="${1:-main}" echo "Fetching and pruning remote references..." git fetch --prune echo "" echo "=== Merged local branches ===" MERGED_LOCAL=$(git branch --merged "$BASE_BRANCH" | grep -v "main\|master\|\*" || true) if [ -z "$MERGED_LOCAL" ]; then echo "No merged local branches to clean up." else echo "$MERGED_LOCAL" echo "" read -rp "Delete these local branches? (y/N) " confirm if [[ "$confirm" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then echo "$MERGED_LOCAL" | xargs -r git branch -d echo "Local branches deleted." fi fi echo "" echo "=== Merged remote branches ===" MERGED_REMOTE=$(git branch -r --merged "$BASE_BRANCH" | grep -v "main\|master\|HEAD" | sed 's/origin\///' || true) if [ -z "$MERGED_REMOTE" ]; then echo "No merged remote branches to clean up." else echo "$MERGED_REMOTE" echo "" read -rp "Delete these remote branches? (y/N) " confirm if [[ "$confirm" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then echo "$MERGED_REMOTE" | xargs -r -I {} git push origin --delete {} echo "Remote branches deleted." fi fi echo "" echo "Cleanup complete. Remaining branches:" git branch -a