Tidy Git

Tidy-Git - Mechanical Repo Hygiene

Cleans up local git state that accumulates over time: remote-tracking refs for branches that no longer exist upstream, local branches that have already been merged, stale worktree references. Surfaces (without acting on) other state worth knowing about: stashes, untracked files, branches with no upstream, branches ahead of upstream, local-only tags.

Scope of action: local repo only. The skill never pushes, never force-pushes, never deletes anything on the remote. It also never deletes unmerged work, never deletes the current branch, never deletes the main branch.

Reversibility note: branches deleted by this skill can be recovered from git reflog for ~90 days. Tags and stashes are not deleted by this skill (the user makes those calls).

Philosophy

Tidy, not review. The user invoked /tidy-git because they want cleanup, not analysis. The skill defaults to doing the safe operations rather than presenting findings for approval. Operator approval is required only for the borderline-safe operations (merged-branch deletion) where a preview is genuinely useful.

Find→fix seam stays small. This skill exists in the /tidy-* namespace because the seam between "detect a stale ref" and "delete it" is essentially zero. Adding a review-and-approve step for every mechanical operation would turn a 5-second cleanup into a 5-minute interactive session.

Boundary respected: local only. Repo hygiene that touches the remote (e.g., deleting remote branches, force-pushing to clean up history) is out of scope. Those operations have non-local effects and warrant explicit per-action operator decisions, not bundled into a "tidy" workflow.

Workflow Overview

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    TIDY-GIT                          │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  1. Detect repo context (main branch, current        │
│     branch, remote)                                  │
│  2. Run zero-risk auto-operations                    │
│     ├─ Prune remote-tracking refs                    │
│     └─ Prune stale worktree refs                     │
│  3. Inventory borderline-safe operations             │
│     └─ Merged local branches (excluding main +       │
│        current)                                      │
│  4. Inventory informational state                    │
│     ├─ Stashes (with age)                            │
│     ├─ Branches with no upstream                     │
│     ├─ Branches ahead of upstream                    │
│     ├─ Local-only tags                               │
│     └─ Untracked files                               │
│  5. Present preview + confirm for branch deletion    │
│  6. Execute approved deletions                       │
│  7. Final summary                                    │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Workflow Details

1. Detect Repo Context

Run the following checks before any cleanup:

• Is this a git repo? git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree. If not, abort cleanly.
• What is the main branch? Try in order: git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD (the canonical answer if origin/HEAD is set), then check for main, then master. If none detected, ask the user.
• What is the current branch? git branch --show-current. Note for safety checks.
• Is the working tree clean? Not a blocker, but worth noting in the summary — it's informational state.

Record the main branch and current branch for safety checks in later steps. These two branches are never deleted by this skill.

2. Run Zero-Risk Auto-Operations

These operations remove only references — they never delete commits, objects, or files. Run without operator confirmation; they cannot lose work.

2a. Prune remote-tracking refs.

git remote prune origin

Removes local refs under refs/remotes/origin/ for branches that no longer exist on the remote. Record the count removed.

If the project has multiple remotes, prune each one in turn.

2b. Prune stale worktree refs.

git worktree prune

Removes references to worktrees whose directories have already been deleted from disk. Does not touch worktrees that still exist. Record the count removed.

3. Inventory Borderline-Safe Operations

Merged local branches

Identify local branches that have been fully merged into the main branch:

git branch --merged 

Exclude from the list:

• The main branch itself
• The current branch (git branch --show-current)
• Any branch passed as a --keep argument by the user (future extension)

For each remaining branch, also record:

• Last commit SHA (so the user can recover via reflog if they regret the delete)
• Last commit date and message (for the preview)
• Whether the branch has an upstream (informational)

Caveat to surface in the preview: git branch --merged only detects branches whose tip commit is reachable from the main branch. Branches that were merged via squash-merge or rebase-merge will NOT show up here — their tip commit is different from anything on main. Those branches will surface in step 4's "branches ahead of upstream" category, where the user can decide.

4. Inventory Informational State

These are reported but never modified by the skill.

4a. Stashes. git stash list --date=relative. Record count and the list. Stashes are never deleted by this skill — the user decides if they want to drop or apply.

4b. Branches with no upstream. git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short) %(upstream)' refs/heads/ and filter for empty upstream. These are local branches that have never been pushed (or whose upstream was deleted without removing the local branch). Surface as informational — they might be intentional local-only work or forgotten branches.

4c. Branches ahead of upstream. For each branch with an upstream, check git rev-list --count @{u}... If non-zero, the branch has commits not on the remote. Report each with the count of commits ahead. Useful for spotting forgotten pushes.

4d. Local-only tags. Compare git tag against git ls-remote --tags origin (or the configured remote). Tags present locally but not remotely are local-only. These may be intentional backups (e.g., pre-rebase-backup-*) and are reported without action. Surface them so the operator can review and drop manually if desired.

4e. Untracked files. git status --porcelain and filter for untracked. Report count and a representative sample (cap at 10 names; collapse the rest). Not deleted by this skill — /pre-compact handles session-trash cleanup with judgment; this skill stays out of that lane.

5. Present Preview + Confirm

If step 3 found merged branches eligible for deletion, present them and ask for confirmation:

## Branch deletion preview

The following local branches are fully merged into  and are
safe to delete. Their SHAs are preserved in git reflog for ~90 days
if you need to recover.

  feat/old-feature        (last commit: 2026-04-15, sha 4a3b2c1)
  fix/typo-readme         (last commit: 2026-04-22, sha 9f8e7d6)
  feat/old-experiment     (last commit: 2026-03-08, sha 1a2b3c4)

Delete all? Select specific? Keep all?

Use AskUserQuestion. Default to "delete all" since the operator invoked the skill expecting cleanup.

Three responses:

• Delete all — proceed to step 6 with the full list.
• Select specific — operator picks a subset; proceed to step 6 with the selection.
• Keep all — skip step 6 and proceed to the summary.

If step 3 found no merged branches: skip directly to the summary. No preview needed.

6. Execute Approved Deletions

For each approved branch:

git branch -d 

Use the lowercase -d (safe delete) — it refuses to delete a branch that isn't actually merged. This guards against rare cases where step 3's --merged check returns a false positive (e.g., a branch was merged-then-reset locally). If -d fails, surface the error and skip that branch; do not fall back to -D.

Record each successful deletion (branch name + SHA) for the summary.

7. Final Summary

## Tidy-Git Complete

### Cleaned
- Pruned N stale remote-tracking refs (origin)
- Pruned M stale worktree refs
- Deleted K merged local branches:
  - feat/old-feature (sha 4a3b2c1)
  - fix/typo-readme (sha 9f8e7d6)

### Recoverable
- Deleted branches are in git reflog for ~90 days:
  `git reflog | grep ` then `git branch  `

### Worth Reviewing (no action taken)
- Stashes: N (oldest from 2026-02-12)
  `git stash list` to inspect; `git stash drop ` to delete
- Local-only branches with no upstream: M
  feat/wip-thing, fix/local-experiment
- Branches ahead of upstream: K
  feat/almost-done (3 commits ahead of origin/feat/almost-done)
- Local-only tags: J
  pre-rebase-backup-2026-05-11
- Untracked files: I (sample below; see `git status` for full list)
  /tmp/scratch.txt, PROJECT_PROGRESS.md, debug.log

If any of the auto-operations failed (e.g., git remote prune errored because there's no remote configured), report the failure inline and continue with the rest of the workflow.

Safety Invariants

The skill must never:

• Delete the main branch.
• Delete the current branch.
• Use git branch -D (force delete) on any branch, ever. If -d fails, the branch stays.
• Run git push, git push --force, git push --delete, or any other operation that affects the remote.
• Run git stash drop, git stash clear, or otherwise discard stashes.
• Run git tag -d on any tag. (Local-only tags are reported, not deleted.)
• Run git clean to remove untracked files. (Untracked files are reported, not deleted; /pre-compact handles session-trash with judgment.)
• Run git gc, git gc --aggressive, or git prune on the object database. Git's gc --auto runs when needed.

These invariants are categorical. The skill does not offer flags or options to override them — if the user wants any of these operations, they invoke git directly.

Abort Conditions

Abort the workflow:

• Not in a git repository.
• Repository is mid-operation (mid-rebase, mid-merge, mid-cherry-pick) — surface this and stop. The user should resolve the in-progress operation first.
• User interrupts.

Do NOT abort for:

• No remote configured (skip the prune step, continue).
• No worktrees (skip the worktree prune step, continue).
• Empty inventory (every category empty is a valid outcome — report "nothing to clean" and exit).
• Individual git branch -d failures (skip the branch, continue with the rest).

Example Session

> /tidy-git

Detected: main branch = "master", current = "feat/wip-thing"

Pruning remote-tracking refs... 4 removed (feat/old-1, feat/old-2,
  feat/old-3, fix/merged-pr).
Pruning worktree refs... 0 removed.

Inventory:
- Merged local branches: 3 (eligible for deletion)
- Stashes: 2 (oldest from 2026-02-12, message: "wip: trying caching")
- Branches with no upstream: 1 (feat/wip-thing)
- Branches ahead of upstream: 0
- Local-only tags: 1 (pre-rebase-backup-2026-05-11)
- Untracked files: 7 (incl. /tmp/scratch.txt, PROJECT_PROGRESS.md)

## Branch deletion preview

The following local branches are fully merged into master and safe
to delete. SHAs preserved in git reflog for ~90 days.

  feat/old-feature      (2026-04-15, sha 4a3b2c1)
  fix/typo-readme       (2026-04-22, sha 9f8e7d6)
  feat/old-experiment   (2026-03-08, sha 1a2b3c4)

Delete all?
> Yes

Deleting feat/old-feature... done (sha 4a3b2c1).
Deleting fix/typo-readme... done (sha 9f8e7d6).
Deleting feat/old-experiment... done (sha 1a2b3c4).

## Tidy-Git Complete

### Cleaned
- Pruned 4 stale remote-tracking refs (origin)
- Deleted 3 merged local branches

### Recoverable
- `git reflog | grep ` then `git branch  `

### Worth Reviewing (no action taken)
- Stashes: 2 (oldest from 2026-02-12)
  `git stash list` to inspect; `git stash drop ` to delete
- Local-only branches with no upstream: 1 (feat/wip-thing)
- Local-only tags: 1 (pre-rebase-backup-2026-05-11)
- Untracked files: 7
  /tmp/scratch.txt, PROJECT_PROGRESS.md, debug.log, ... (4 more)
  Run `git status` for the full list.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: chrisallenlane
• Source: chrisallenlane/claude-swe-workflows
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.