Claude-skill-registry branch-cleaner

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.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/majiayu000/claude-skill-registry

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/majiayu000/claude-skill-registry "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/data/branch-cleaner" ~/.claude/skills/majiayu000-claude-skill-registry-branch-cleaner && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/data/branch-cleaner/SKILL.md

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

Sync and inspect
- Run
```
git fetch --prune
```
  .
- Check
```
git status
```
  and note uncommitted changes.

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)"

Exclude protected branches
- Always keep
```
<base>
```
  , current branch, and user-provided patterns.
Confirm with user
- Present candidates grouped by local vs remote.
Provide delete commands
- Delete branches approved for deletion by the user

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.