cleanup

Stale branch, PR, and worktree cleanup. Lists branches with no recent commits, PRs open too long, merged branches not deleted, orphaned worktrees, and draft PRs that went stale. Offers to close or delete with confirmation per item. Use when user says "cleanup", "clean branches", "stale PRs", "delete old branches", "prune", "tidy up", or wants to reduce repository clutter. Do NOT use for code cleanup (use /refactor), dependency updates (use /audit deps), or git workflow (use /ship).

Repository hygiene tool that finds stale branches, lingering PRs, merged branches not yet deleted, and orphaned worktrees. Presents everything in a table, asks for confirmation per item, and cleans up what you approve.

When to use

  • When the repository has accumulated many old branches.
  • When you want to prune merged branches that were never deleted after merge.
  • When open PRs have gone stale and need to be closed or re-evaluated.
  • When worktrees from previous tasks were left behind.
  • Before a release to reduce clutter.

When NOT to use

  • For refactoring or cleaning up code. Use /review or a manual refactor instead.
  • For dependency updates or vulnerability scanning. Use /audit instead.
  • For git commit, push, or PR creation. Use /ship instead.

Arguments

This skill accepts optional arguments after /cleanup:

  • No arguments: full scan covering branches, PRs, and worktrees.
  • branches: scan branches only.
  • prs: scan PRs only.
  • worktrees: scan worktrees only.
  • --dry-run: show what would be cleaned without deleting or closing anything.

Examples: /cleanup branches, /cleanup prs --dry-run, /cleanup --dry-run.

Steps

  1. Detect the platform and account. Read git remote get-url origin to determine GitHub or GitLab. Identify the correct account token per the github-accounts or gitlab-accounts rules.

  2. Find merged branches. Run git branch --merged origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null to list local branches whose HEAD is reachable from the default branch. If origin/HEAD is not set, try origin/main, then origin/master. Exclude protected branches: main, master, develop, staging, production, and any branch matching release/*. These can be safely deleted with git branch -d.

  3. Find stale branches. For each local and remote branch not in the merged list and not protected, check the date of the last commit: git log -1 --format="%ci" <branch>. Flag branches with no commits in the last 30 days as stale. Record the branch name, last commit date, last commit message, and author.

  4. Find stale PRs. Query the platform for open PRs in the current repo.

    • GitHub: GH_TOKEN=$(gh auth token --user <account>) gh pr list --state open --json number,title,author,createdAt,updatedAt,isDraft,url
    • GitLab: GITLAB_TOKEN=<token> GITLAB_HOST=<host> glab mr list --state opened
    • Flag PRs open for more than 14 days with no activity in the last 7 days as stale.
    • Flag draft PRs open for more than 7 days separately.

  5. Find orphaned worktrees. Run git worktree list --porcelain. For each worktree, check if its branch still exists and is not merged. A worktree whose branch was deleted or merged is orphaned.

  6. Present findings. Display a table grouped by category:

    ## Cleanup Report

### Merged branches (safe to delete)

| Branch | Merged into | Last commit |
|--------|------------|-------------|
| feature/auth-v2 | main | 12 days ago |
| bugfix/null-check | main | 3 weeks ago |

### Stale branches (no commits in 30+ days)

| Branch | Last commit | Author | Last message |
|--------|------------|--------|-------------|
| feature/old-idea | 45 days ago | alice | WIP: initial attempt |

### Stale PRs (open 14+ days, no recent activity)

| PR | Title | Author | Age | Last activity |
|----|-------|--------|-----|--------------|
| #42 | Add caching layer | bob | 21 days | 18 days ago |

### Draft PRs (open 7+ days)

| PR | Title | Author | Age |
|----|-------|--------|-----|
| #55 | WIP: new layout | carol | 10 days |

### Orphaned worktrees

| Path | Branch | Reason |
|------|--------|--------|
| /tmp/repo-auth | feature/auth | branch deleted |

  7. If --dry-run was passed, stop here. Print the report and exit without taking any action.

  8. Confirm and act. For each category, ask the user which items to clean up. Accept "all", a comma-separated list of names or numbers, or "skip".

    • Merged branches: git branch -d <branch>.
    • Stale branches: git branch -D <branch> with a warning that this force-deletes an unmerged branch.
    • Stale PRs: close with a comment explaining the reason.
      • GitHub: GH_TOKEN=$(gh auth token --user <account>) gh pr close <number> --comment "Closing: no activity for N days. Reopen if still needed."
      • GitLab: GITLAB_TOKEN=<token> GITLAB_HOST=<host> glab mr close <number>
    • Draft PRs: same as stale PRs.
    • Orphaned worktrees: git worktree remove <path>.

  9. Prune remote tracking branches. Run git remote prune origin to clean up references to deleted remote branches.

  10. Print summary.

    ### Cleanup complete

- N merged branches deleted
- N stale branches deleted
- N PRs closed
- N worktrees removed
- Remote tracking branches pruned

Rules

  • Never delete protected branches: main, master, develop, staging, production, or branches matching release/*.
  • Always confirm before force-deleting unmerged branches. Make the warning visible.
  • Never close PRs that have activity in the last 7 days, even if they are older than the stale threshold.
  • Always prefix gh commands with GH_TOKEN per the github-accounts rule.
  • Always prefix glab commands with GITLAB_TOKEN and GITLAB_HOST per the gitlab-accounts rule.
  • Always include a comment when closing a PR so the author understands why.
  • In --dry-run mode, do not modify any state. Report only.
  • When a branch exists both locally and on the remote, delete both if approved. Delete local first, then remote.
  • Show age and last activity in relative format.

Related skills

  • /ship - Commit, push, and create PRs.
  • /morning - Daily briefing that shows open PRs and pending reviews.
  • /weekly - Sprint summary with delivery metrics.