🧹 Clean Up Merged Git Branches

Keep your Git repo tidy and your team sane

Ever opened git branch and seen a scroll of old, merged branches? Time to clean house.

🚀 Why You Should Clean Merged Branches

• Prevent clutter and confusion.
• Avoid accidentally working on stale branches.
• Improve project hygiene for the whole team.

🔥 One-Liner to Delete Merged Branches Locally

Here’s the safe and simple command to delete all locally merged branches except protected ones:

git branch --merged | egrep -v '^\*|main|master|release/staging' | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

🛡️ This skips the current branch (*) and branches like main, master, and release/staging.

☁️ Cleaning Up Remote Branches (Carefully)

To delete remote branches that are already merged:

git push origin --delete branch-name

💡 Pro tip: Use your Git hosting UI (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) to confirm merge status before deletion.

🧠 Final Tip

Clean up regularly. Make it a habit at the end of each sprint or feature merge.