Git Branch Cleanup

Systematically identify and remove branches that are no longer needed. Stale branches accumulate fast — especially when PRs auto-delete the remote branch on merge but the local tracking ref and local branch stick around. This skill walks through the cleanup safely so nothing important gets lost.

Workflow

Step 1: Refresh remote state

Start by fetching and pruning so the local view of remote branches is accurate. Without this, you'd see stale origin/* refs for branches GitHub already deleted on merge.

git fetch origin --prune