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 iforigin/HEADis set), then check formain, thenmaster. 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 <main-branch>
Exclude from the list:
- The main branch itself
- The current branch (
git branch --show-current) - Any branch passed as a
--keepargument 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 <branch>@{u}..<branch>. 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 <main> 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 <branch-name>
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 `--me