Squash-merge workflows leave stale tracking branches behind. You can nuke whole categories with one-liners like git branch --merged | xargs git branch -d, but that's often too aggressive — some branches have unpushed work, some track PRs you still care about. git-broom groups your branches by remote and PR status so you can see what's worth keeping at a glance, then lets you interactively triage and clean up the rest.
git-broom— preview branches grouped by status (safe, read-only)
git-broom clean— enter the interactive TUI to triage and delete branches
| Group | Remote | PR | Equivalent one-liner |
|---|---|---|---|
🔴 gone |
gone | — | git branch -vv | grep ': gone]' |
🟡 unpushed |
never | — | git branch -vv | grep -v '\[.*/' |
🟠 nopr |
yes | — | (no simple one-liner) |
🔵 closed |
yes | closed | gh pr list --state closed --author @me |
🟢 merged |
yes | merged | gh pr list --state merged --author @me |
🔵 pr |
yes | open | gh pr list --author @me |
By default, git-broom previews all six groups. git-broom clean uses all except pr (open PRs are preview-only).
You need the GitHub CLI (gh):
gh auth loginbrew install andrewlook/tap/git-broomIf you have Rust installed:
cargo install git-broom# preview all groups
git-broom
# preview only specific groups
git-broom -g gone,unpushed
git-broom -g pr,closed,merged
# use a different remote (default: origin)
git-broom -g merged --remote upstream# interactively triage all cleanup groups
git-broom clean
# only triage specific groups
git-broom clean -g gone,unpushedgit-broom (without clean) prints a grouped branch list and exits — nothing is modified.
Saved branches are listed separately at the top of each group so you can see what you've previously decided to keep.
PR metadata is cached at
.git/git-broom/pr-cache.json(10-minute TTL) to speed up repeated previews.git-broom cleanalways refreshes GitHub data before entering the TUI.
git-broom clean walks each group through two TUI screens:
- First, triage
- Then review.
Triage: Browse branches in the current group and mark them for deletion or save them for later.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
j / k or ↑ / ↓ |
Navigate branches |
d |
Toggle branch for deletion |
s |
Toggle save/unsave |
a |
Mark all deletable branches for deletion |
u |
Clear all delete marks |
Enter |
Proceed to review screen |
q / Esc |
Quit |
Protected branches are shown for context but cannot be deleted:
mainmaster- the current branch
- worktree checkouts
Review: Before anything is deleted, the review screen shows the exact git commands that will run.
- For
goneandunpushedbranches, this is justgit branch -D. - For remote-tracked groups (
nopr,closed,merged), the remote branch is deleted first (git push <remote> :refs/heads/<branch>) followed by the local branch.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
y |
Confirm and delete |
n |
Go back to triage |
q / Esc |
Quit |
Press s in the triage screen to save a branch. Saved branches are:
- Excluded from
a(mark all) and delete-all until you explicitly unsave them - Visible in both preview and TUI output, listed at the top of their group
- Scoped to the cleanup group — saving a branch in
noprdoesn't affect other groups
Details:
- Persisted per-repo at
.git/git-broom/keep-labels.json(survives across sessions)- In worktree setups, saved branches resolve through the shared git common dir so all worktrees share the same saved state.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, testing, and release instructions.
MIT. See LICENSE.