I found a useful Git one liner buried in leaked CIA developer docs

Here's my take on the one-liner that I use via a `git tidy` alias[1]. A few points:

* It ensures the default branch is not deleted (main, master)

* It does not touch the current branch

* It does not touch the branch in a different worktree[2]

* It also works with non-merge repos by deleting the local branches that are gone on the remote

    git branch --merged "$(git config init.defaultBranch)" \
    | grep -Fv "$(git config init.defaultBranch)" \
    | grep -vF '*' \
    | grep -vF '+' \
    | xargs git branch -d \
    && git fetch \
    && git remote prune origin \
    && git branch -v \
    | grep -F '[gone]' \
    | grep -vF '*' \
    | grep -vF '+' \
    | awk '{print $1}' \
    | xargs git branch -D

[1]: https://github.com/fphilipe/dotfiles/blob/ba9187d7c895e44c35...

[2]: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-worktree

I have a cleanup command that integrates with fzf. It pre selects every merged branch, so I can just hit return to delete them all. But it gives me the opportunity to deselect to preserve any branches if I want. It also prunes any remote branches

    # remove merged branches (local and remote)
    cleanup = "!git branch -vv | grep ': gone]' | awk '{print $1}' | fzf --multi --sync --bind start:select-all | xargs git branch -D; git remote prune origin;"

https://github.com/WickyNilliams/dotfiles/blob/c4154dd9b6980...

I've got a few aliases that integrate with fzf like an interactive cherry pick (choose branch, choose 1 or more commits), or a branch selector with a preview panel showing commits to the side. Super useful

The article also mentions that master has changed to main mostly, but some places use develop and other names as their primary branch. For that reason I always use a git config variable to reference such branches. In my global git config it's main. Then I override where necessary in any repo's local config eg here's an update command that updates primary and rebases the current branch on top:

    # switch to primary branch, pull, switch back, rebase
    update = !"git switch ${1:-$(git config user.primaryBranch)}; git pull; git switch -; git rebase -;"

https://github.com/WickyNilliams/dotfiles/blob/c4154dd9b6980...

The main issue with `git branch --merged` is that if the repo enforces squash merges, it obviously won't work, because SHA of squash-merged commit in main != SHA of the original branch HEAD.

What tools are the best to do the equivalent but for squash-merged branches detections?

Note: this problem is harder than it seems to do safely, because e.g. I can have a branch `foo` locally that was squash-merged on remote, but before it happened, I might have added a few more commits locally and forgot to push. So naively deleting `foo` locally may make me lose data.

I've had essentially that - if a bit fancier to accept an optional argument as well as handle common "mainline" branch names - aliased as `git lint` for a while:

    [alias]
        lint = !git branch --merged ${1-} | grep -v -E -e '^[*]?[ ]*(main|master|[0-9]+[.]([0-9]+|x)-stable)$' -e '^[*][ ]+' | xargs -r -n 1 git branch --delete

so:

    git pull --prune && git lint

sits very high in my history stats

I published essentially the same thing ten years ago, maybe it inspired the CIA? ;)

The “trunk” check shows how old this is. Not nearly as useful now with rebase/squash on a remote being common, as others have mentioned.

https://github.com/ricardobeat/git-commands/blob/master/git-...

The Git command is whatever, pretty basic and stuff i have done forever but i am glad i clicked because ended up going down the rabbithole of the Wikileaks it was sourced from

Some unhinged stuff there. Like the CIA having a project called "Fine Dining" which was basically a catalog of apps that could be put on a USB drive to hide malicious code.

A case officer picks a cover app from a list of 24: VLC, Chrome, Notepad++, 2048, Breakout. Plug in the USB. Cover app opens. Exfiltration runs silently behind it. Target walks back in and the officer can just say "oh was just playing some games on this machine"

If something this natural requires several lines of bash, something is just not right. Maybe branches should go sorted by default, either chronologically or topologically? git's LoC budget is 20x LevelDBs or 30% of PostgreSQL or 3 SQLites. It must be able to do these things out of the box, isn't it?

https://replicated.wiki/blog/partII.html

I currently have a TUI addiction. Each time I want something to be easier, I open claude-code and ask for a TUI. Now I have a git worktree manager where I can add/rebase/delete. As TUI library I use Textual which claude handles quite well, especially as it can test-run quite some Python code.

I have something similar, but open fzf to select the branches to delete [1].

    function fcleanb -d "fzf git select branches to delete where the upstream has disappeared"
        set -l branches_to_delete (
            git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate --format='%(refname:lstrip=2) %(upstream:track)' refs/heads/ | \
            egrep '\[gone\]$' | grep -v "master" | \
            awk '{print $1}' | $_FZF_BINARY --multi --exit-0 \
        )

        for branch in $branches_to_delete
            git branch -D "$branch"
        end
    end

[1]: https://github.com/jo-m/dotfiles/blob/29d4cab4ba6a18dc44dcf9...

So effectively "I just discovered xargs"? Not to disparage OP but there isn't anything particularly novel here.

I use this alias:

    prune-local = "!git fetch -p && for branch in $(git branch -vv | awk '/: gone]/{if ($1!=\"\*\") print $1}'); do git branch -d $branch; done"

1. Fetch the latest from my remote, removing any remote tracking branches that no longer exist

2. Enumerate local branches, selecting each that has been marked as no longer having a remote version (ignoring the current branch)

3. Delete the local branch safely

Much more complicated than necessary. I just use

git branch | xargs git branch -d

Don't quote me, that's off the top of my head.

It won't delete unmerged branches by default. The line with the marker for the current branch throws an error but it does no harm. And I just run it with `develop` checked out. If I delete develop by accident I can recreate it from origin/develop.

Sometimes I intentionally delete develop if my develop branch is far behind the feature branch I'm on. If I don't and I have to switch to a really old develop and pull before merging in my feature branch, it creates unnecessary churn on my files and makes my IDE waste time trying to build the obsolete stuff. And depending how obsolete it is and what files have changed, it can be disruptive to the IDE.

I keep a command `git-remove-merged`, which uses `git ls-remote` to see if the branch is set up to track a remote branch, and if it is then whether the remote branch still exists. On the assumption that branches which have had remote tracking but no longer do are either merged or defunct.

https://gist.github.com/andrewaylett/27c6a33bd2fc8c99eada605...

But actually nowadays I use JJ and don't worry about named branches :).

We all have something similar, it seems! I stole mine from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7726949/remove-tracking-....

I also set mine up to run on `git checkout master` so that I don't really have to think about it too hard -- it just runs automagically. `gcm` has now become muscle memory for me.

  alias gcm=$'git checkout master || git checkout main && git pull && git remote prune origin && git branch -vv | grep \': gone]\'|  grep -v "\*" | awk \'{ print $1; }\' | xargs -r git branch -D'

I've had this command as 'git drop-merged' for a few years now (put as a script in your path named git-drop-merged:

  #!/bin/sh
  git branch --merged | egrep -v "(^\*|master|main|dev)" | xargs --no-run-if-empty
  git branch -d

Why not just git dmb? https://manpages.debian.org/testing/git-delete-merged-branch...

IIRC, you can do git branch -D $(git branch) and git will refuse to delete your current branch. Kind of the lazy way. I never work off of master/main, and usually when I need to look at them I checkout the remote branches instead.

Consolidated approach based on the blog post + the comment thread here + my own dotfiles + Claude's input:

https://gist.github.com/tomholford/0aa4cdb1340a9b5411ed6eaad...

    DEFAULT_BRANCH=$(git remote show origin | sed -n '/HEAD branch/s/.*: //p')

    git branch --merged "origin/$DEFAULT_BRANCH" \
      | grep -vE "^\s*(\*|$DEFAULT_BRANCH)" \
      | xargs -r -n 1 git branch -d

This is the version I'd want in my $EMPLOYER's codebase that has a mix of default branches

Speaking of user friendliness of git UI. I am working on a revision control system that (ideally) should be as user friendly as Ctrl+S Ctrl+Z in most common cases. Spent almost a week on design docs, looking for feedback (so far it was very valuable, btw)

https://replicated.wiki/blog/partII.html#navigating-the-hist...

What's wrong with just deleting the whole folder and clone repo and whatever branch you're interested in? In any case it's not an urgent thing. You don't have to do this mid-work, you can wait until you push most stuff and then rm && git clone.

The only case in which this wouldn't work is when you have a ton of necessary local branches you can't even push to remote, which is a risk and anti-pattern per se.

You could solve the original problem statement using just the part of the script that lists unmerged branches

I sometimes convert old branches to tags. So they don't show up in the list of branches, but I never lose any branches by accident.

All those "merged" workflows only work, if you actually merge the branches. It doesn't work with a squash merge workflow.

edit: I delegate this task to a coding agent. I'm really bad at bash commands. yolo!

I use this tool, which allows one to select the branches to delete instead of just deleting everything: https://github.com/stefanwille/git-branch-delete

Unfortunately its name makes it hard to search for and find.

`git trash`

https://github.com/henrikpersson/git-trash

I use this script with a quick overview to prevent accidentally deleting something important

This looks loosely like something already present in git-extras[1].

    [1]: https://github.com/tj/git-extras/blob/main/Commands.md#git-delete-merged-branches

I use

    #!/bin/sh
    
    git checkout main
    git fetch --prune
    git branch | grep -v main | xargs --no-run-if-empty git branch -D
    git pull

Save that next to your git binary, call it whatever you want. It's destructive on purpose.

I use git-trim for that:

https://github.com/foriequal0/git-trim

Readme also explains why it's better than a bash-oneliner in some cases.

I have an image of running his command, 'ciaclean', and a black van turnes up with a bunch of agents in coveralls, brandishing rolls of polyethylene sheeting and drums of acid.

I use this PowerShell variant:

    function Remove-GitBranches {
        git branch --merged | Out-GridView -Title "Branches to Remove?" -OutputMode Multiple | % { git branch -d $_.Trim() }
    }

`Out-GridView` gives you a quick popup dialog with all the branch names that supports easy multi-select. That way you get a quick preview of what you are cleaning up and can skip work in progress branch names that you haven't committed anything to yet.

Or don't go crazy making branches in the first place.

Have a merge workflow which deletes the branch right there.

This is the same thing as `git rebase-update`, available in Chrome's `depot_tools`, which deletes merged branches.

Beyond that, this is just OP learning how `xargs` works.

Anyone else "vibe git-ing” lately? I just ask Claude Opus to clean it up and it does really well. Same for build commands and test harnesses.

wrote about something similar last year https://mlog.nektro.net/posts/2025/git-deleteallotherbranche...

I've had this in my ~/.bash_aliases for awhile:

  alias git-wipe-merged-branches='git branch --merged | grep -v \* | xargs git branch -D'

Trying to remember where I got that one, as I had commented the following version out:

  alias git-wipe-all-branches='git for-each-ref --format '%(refname:short)' refs/heads | grep -v master | xargs git branch -D'

I’m surprised to see not enough people using xargs, or maybe I overuse it

You probably want git-dmb (dmb = delete merged branches) for a safe and more comprehensive way of dealing with this.

If you are using Fork.app on Mac as your git client, this now exists (For one month now) there too: https://github.com/fork-dev/Tracker/issues/2200#issuecomment...

The git plugin in oh-my-zsh has an alias for this: gbda

It also has one for squash-merged branches: gbds

Very useful I've been using them for years

Missed opportunity to call it `git ciao`

I needed that exact functionality and Claude code and ChatGPT consistently showing this same exact combo CLI receipt with the simple prompt "how to do use CLI to remove merged branch locally."

I don't delete branches, I just work with the top several most recently modified.

I’ve been using something similar for years with Nushell.

git branch | lines | where ($it !~ '^*') | each {|br| git branch -D ($br | str trim)} | str trim

Using grep and xargs is worth a whole blog post now? hmmmmm

If you squash your PR before merging, then this alternative worked really well for me:

  git fetch --prune && git branch -vv | awk '/: gone]/{print $1}' | xargs git branch -D

Dont most git instances, like github, delete branch after a PR was merged, by default?

I am not sure under what usecases, you will end up with a lot of stale branches. And git fetch -pa should fix it locally

> Since most projects now use main instead of master…

I see that even the CIA, a federal government office, has not fully used DEI approved, inclusive language yet :-)

I recently let copilot create a document with a few helpful git commands and that particular one was the one it came with as solution for exactly this case.

I cleanup branches interactively with a few lines of bash, which takes a bit more time but is less likely to destroy active work.

gh-poi plugin is a must if you manage a lot of github pr and want to easily clean the branch attached to it when pr is merged https://github.com/seachicken/gh-poi

Wait, why would the update for the silly master->main change be swapping the excluded regex instead of just excluding both?

Oh this is what ChatGPT told me when I asked "How to remove all local branch except main"...

I’ve been doing just `git branch -d $(git branch)`, what am I missing?

Unfortunately doesn't work if the project you work on squashes everything :(

"ciaclean" is a nice touch.

I assume CIA stands for Clean It All.

grep + xargs ... in other words, we're finally back at good old standard svn workflows

how is this a news item. LLMs figured this out for me two years ago

Trust Langley to neatly tie up all the loose ends.

I want to point out explicitly that .git config supports aliases, so in .gitconfig put an [alias] section, and in that you can put ciaclean = "!alias ciaclean='git branch --merged origin/main | grep -vE "^\s(*|main|develop)" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d'"

so then it's `git ciaclean` and not bare `ciaclean` which imo is cleaner.

honestly my go to is kind of similar, but I prefer using --format vs. straight grep. just feels like the plumbing is cleaner out of the box:

    git branch --merged origin/main --format="%(refname:short)" \ | grep -vE "^(main|develop)$" \ | xargs -r git branch -d

that said... pretty hilarious a dev was just like "uhh yeah ciaclean..." curious what... other aliases they might have??

I've used this for about 10 years now. Pretty sure it was a widespread way of doing it before any CIA leak.

I work with GitHub, so this oneliner relly helps me out. It also doesn't rely on grep, since --format have all you need:

    git branch --format '%(if:equals=gone)%(upstream:track,nobracket)%(then)%(refname:short)%(end)' --omit-empty | xargs --verbose -r git branch -D

It deletes all the branches for which remotes were deleted. GitHub deletes branches after PR was merged. I alias it to delete-merged

don't forget to fetch first

i once used ai to generate a command doing the exact same thing.

git branch -vv | grep ': gone\]' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -n 1 git branch -D

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I use `master` in all my repos because I've been using it since forever and it never has once occurred to me "oh shit I better change it to `main` this time in case `master` may offend somebody some day. Unfortunately, that's the last thing on my mind when I'm in programming mode. Now that everything is `master`, maybe it is just a simple git command to change it to `main`. But, my fear is it'll subtly break something and I just don't have enough hours left in my life to accept yet unknown risk that it'll cost me even more hours, just to make some random sensitive developer not get offended one day.

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