Jossec101 / gitclean

A tool to clean up local git branches that have already been merged or squashed into a target branch

gitclean

A tool to clean up local git branches that have already been merged or squashed into a target branch (default: main).

Requirements

• git (command-line tool)
• GitHub CLI (gh)

Features

• Safely deletes local branches that have been merged or squashed into the target branch
• Checks each branch for a merged pull request using GitHub CLI (gh pr view); skips branches with open PRs
• Backs up your repository before deleting any branches
• Dry-run mode: preview branches that would be deleted without making changes
• Force mode: delete branches without confirmation
• Specify any target branch to compare against (default: origin/main)
• Configurable log level (debug, info, warn, error) with emoji and timestamped logs
• Fast: only fetches the target branch from origin

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

# Add the tap (one-time setup)
brew tap Jossec101/gitclean

# Install gitclean
brew install gitclean

Go Install

go install github.com/jossec101/gitclean@latest

Development

This project uses Just as a command runner for development tasks:

just build          # Build the binary
just test           # Run tests
just release-test   # Test release process
just --list         # Show all available commands

Usage

gitclean --dryrun           # Show what would be deleted, but do not delete anything
gitclean --force            # Delete branches without asking for confirmation
gitclean --target=main      # Use a different target branch (default: origin/main)
gitclean --log-level=debug  # Set log level (debug, info, warn, error)

License

MIT