git_branches

A terminal tool to find merged and stale local git branches and clean them up - delete the dead ones, push the ones with unpushed work - without leaving the keyboard.

Main	Delete screen

It shows every local branch ordered by last activity, flags which are merged into the default branch, stale, or have a gone/ahead upstream, and lets you act on them either one key at a time or as a marked batch.

It detects squash- and rebase-merged branches too — the ones git branch --merged can't see because their commits were collapsed into a single new commit on the default branch. These show a squashed badge: their work is already upstream, so they're safe cleanup candidates (deletion still needs -D, which the tool handles).

Built with nocterm, a sibling of git_chain.

Install

dart pub global activate --source path .
# or, once published:
# dart pub global activate git_branches

Requires git on PATH.

Usage

Run inside any git repository:

git_branches          # interactive UI (default)
git_branches list             # plain-text list, stalest first
git_branches list --merged    # only branches merged into the default branch
git_branches list --stale     # only unmerged branches idle for 60+ days
git_branches demo             # build a local demo repo to try it (no network)

The UI

Each row shows: the selection mark, branch name (colored by state), last activity, and status badges (merged, stale, current, default, gone, no-upstream, ↑ahead, ↓behind). The current and default branches are pinned to the top and protected from deletion.

Marking & acting

Two ways to act, and they compose:

• Batch — press Space to cycle a branch's mark through none → ✗ delete → ↑ push → none. Mark as many as you like, then press Enter to apply them all at once after a confirmation summary.
• Quick — when nothing is marked, press d to delete or p to push the highlighted branch immediately.

Key	Action
↑ ↓	Move selection
Space	Cycle mark: none → delete → push
Enter	Apply all marks (delete + push) with confirmation
Esc	Clear all marks
d	Delete highlighted branch now (when nothing marked)
p	Push highlighted branch now (when nothing marked)
o	Cycle sort: stalest first / recent first / name
f	Cycle filter: all / merged / unmerged
r	Reload
?	Help
q	Quit

What delete and push do

• Delete is local only: git branch -d for reachability-merged branches, and git branch -D (force) otherwise. Squash-merged branches use -D but are flagged as safe (work is upstream); genuinely unmerged branches get an explicit force-delete confirmation. Remote branches are never touched.
• Push runs git push, adding -u origin <branch> when the branch has no upstream yet.

Trying it out

git_branches demo                      # ~/.git_branches/demo-repo (+ local remote)
cd ~/.git_branches/demo-repo && git_branches
# clean up:
rm -rf ~/.git_branches

The demo creates a repo (with a local bare remote, so pushes really work) containing merged branches, stale unmerged branches with old dates, a branch with unpushed commits, and one whose remote was deleted — so every badge and action is exercised.

Architecture

lib/src/
  git/git_repo.dart       — git CLI wrapper: branch listing, merge detection, delete, push
  models.dart             — BranchInfo, MarkState, SortOrder, BranchFilter
  display/branches_app.dart — nocterm TUI
  commands/               — tui / list / demo