Git Ops

DLC: Git Ops

Automated git hygiene — clean up merged branches, prune stale remote tracking refs, and verify repository state.

Step 1: Sync with Remote

Fetch latest state, prune deleted remote branches, and sync the default branch.

# Detect the default branch dynamically
# 2>/dev/null suppresses errors when symbolic-ref is not set (e.g. shallow clone)
DEFAULT_BRANCH=$(git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null | sed 's|refs/remotes/origin/||')

# Fallback: check for main, then master
if [ -z "$DEFAULT_BRANCH" ]; then
  if git show-ref --verify --quiet refs/remotes/origin/main; then
    DEFAULT_BRANCH="main"
  elif git show-ref --verify --quiet refs/remotes/origin/master; then
    DEFAULT_BRANCH="master"
  else
    echo "ERROR: Cannot determine default branch. Aborting."
    exit 1
  fi
fi

echo "Default branch: $DEFAULT_BRANCH"

# Fetch and prune stale remote tracking refs
git fetch origin --prune

# Abort if worktree has uncommitted changes
if [ -n "$(git status --porcelain)" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: Worktree is dirty — stash or commit your changes before running git-ops."
  exit 1
fi

# Capture starting branch before switching — Step 3 uses this for the commit range
START_REF=$(git branch --show-current)

# Switch to default branch and pull (fast-forward only to avoid merge commits)
git checkout "$DEFAULT_BRANCH"
git pull --ff-only origin "$DEFAULT_BRANCH"

If git pull --ff-only fails, abort with: "ERROR: non-fast-forward update for $DEFAULT_BRANCH. Resolve manually."

Step 2: Detect Cleanup Candidates

Combine two detection methods and deduplicate:

# Method 1: Branches fully merged into the default branch
MERGED=$(git branch --merged "$DEFAULT_BRANCH" | grep -v '^\*' | sed 's/^[[:space:]]*//')

# Method 2: Branches whose remote tracking ref is gone (plumbing command for reliable parsing)
GONE=$(git for-each-ref --format '%(refname:short) %(upstream:track)' refs/heads | grep '\[gone\]' | cut -d' ' -f1)

# Combine and deduplicate: track which method(s) detected each branch
# Branches in both lists get reason "merged + gone"

Filter out protected branches — never include these in candidates:

• $DEFAULT_BRANCH (the dynamically detected default branch)
• main
• master
• develop
• Any branch matching release/*

# Filter protected branches from the combined candidate list
echo "$CANDIDATES" | grep -v -E "^(main|master|develop|${DEFAULT_BRANCH})$" | grep -v '^release/'

For each candidate, record:

| Field | Value | |-------|-------| | name | Branch name | | reason | merged (from method 1), gone (from method 2), or merged + gone (both) | | has_remote | yes if git ls-remote --exit-code --heads origin "$name" succeeds, no otherwise |

If no candidates are found, print "No cleanup candidates found. Repository is clean.", skip Steps 4 and 5, and continue with Step 3.

Step 3: Check Commit Message Quality

Check whether commits on the current branch follow the conventional commit format required by semantic-release.

# Use START_REF captured before default-branch checkout in Step 1; fall back to HEAD
TARGET_REF="${START_REF:-HEAD}"

# Check commits on current branch not yet merged into default branch
COMMITS=$(git log --format="%s" "origin/${DEFAULT_BRANCH}..${TARGET_REF}" 2>/dev/null)

if [ -z "$COMMITS" ]; then
  echo "No commits ahead of ${DEFAULT_BRANCH} to check."
else
  TOTAL=0; CONVENTIONAL=0; NON_CONVENTIONAL=0; BAD_MSGS=""
  while IFS= read -r msg; do
    TOTAL=$((TOTAL + 1))
    # Single-quoted regex avoids shell expansion; allows optional scope and breaking-change (!)
    if echo "$msg" | grep -qE '^(feat|fix|chore|docs|style|refactor|test|perf|ci|build|revert)(\([^)]*\))?(!)?: .+'; then
      CONVENTIONAL=$((CONVENTIONAL + 1))
    else
      NON_CONVENTIONAL=$((NON_CONVENTIONAL + 1))
      BAD_MSGS+=$'\n'"  - ✗ \"$msg\""
    fi
  done  /dev/null; then
  git push origin --delete "$BRANCH_NAME"
fi

Safety rules:

• Use -d (NOT -D) — Git's built-in safety check prevents deleting unmerged branches
• NEVER delete protected branches ($DEFAULT_BRANCH, main, master, develop, release/*) even if they appear in candidates (defense-in-depth)
• If git branch -d fails for a branch, report the failure and continue with the next branch — do not abort the entire cleanup
• If git push origin --delete fails, report the failure but count the local deletion as successful

Step 6: Report

Print a summary:

Git ops complete.

  Before: {n} local branches
  After:  {n} local branches
  Deleted: {n} branches

  Deleted:
    - {branch-1} (merged)
    - {branch-2} (gone)

  Failed (if any):
    - {branch-3}: not fully merged (use git branch -D to force)

  Remaining:
    - main
    - develop
    - feature/in-progress

Commit message quality:
  - Total commits on branch: {n}
  - Conventional: {n}  Non-conventional: {n}
  - Status: [✓ all conventional | ⚠ {n} non-conventional] — severity: {severity}
  {For each non-conventional commit:}
  - ✗ "{message}"

If no branches were deleted (skip or no candidates), omit only the "Deleted" and "Failed" sections — always include the "Remaining" section and the "Commit message quality" section below it.

If no commits are ahead of the default branch (Step 3 found an empty range), replace the entire "Commit message quality:" section (including the header) with:

  No commits ahead of {DEFAULT_BRANCH} to check.

Source & license

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

• Author: rube-de
• Source: rube-de/cc-skills
• License: MIT

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