name: branch-cleaner
description: Identify and clean up stale git branches locally and on remotes with safe, reversible steps. Use when asked to prune, list, or delete merged/old branches or audit branch hygiene.

Branch cleaner

Goal

Safely identify stale branches and provide explicit delete/prune commands.

Inputs to confirm (ask if missing)

• Default branch (main/master/develop).
• Remote name (origin) and whether remote deletion is desired.
• Safety rules: keep patterns (release/, hotfix/), minimum age, merged-only.

Workflow

1) Sync and inspect
- Run git fetch --prune.
- Check git status and note uncommitted changes.
2) Build candidate lists
- Local merged into default: git branch --merged <base>
- Local not merged (list only): git branch --no-merged <base>
- Remote merged: git branch -r --merged <base>
- Stale by date: git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads --format="%(committerdate:short) %(refname:short)"
3) Exclude protected branches
- Always keep <base>, current branch, and user-provided patterns.
4) Confirm with user
- Present candidates grouped by local vs remote.
5) Provide delete commands
- Delete branches approved for deletion by the user
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Optional GitHub CLI checks

• gh pr list --state merged --base <base> to correlate merged branches.
• gh pr view <branch> to verify status if needed.

Deliverables

• Candidate lists and rationale.
• Warnings for unmerged or recently updated branches.
• Don't remove remote branches unless explicitly approved.