prune-merged-branches

To safely delete local git branches after a squash merge, verify the merged pull request's head SHA exists locally instead of relying on git ancestry heuristics. This prevents losing un-pushed commits when squash merges make naive git branch deletion unsafe.

Git branch --merged fails for squash-merged branches because squash merges create a new commit without preserving ancestry. Safe deletion requires fetching the GitHub PR head ref and confirming the exact head SHA is present in the local branch history.

The best way to clean up local git branches without losing un-pushed commits is using a report-first tool that classifies branches into DELETE, KEEP, and SKIP categories, verifying GitHub PR head objects locally before removing anything.

Yes, you need the gh CLI to prune merged local branches tied to GitHub pull requests. The tool requires gh to list merged PR head refs, fetch and verify PR-head objects locally, and confirm ancestry via merge-base before deletion.

To avoid deleting unrelated historical branches during git cleanup, verify branch names against active GitHub PR head refs and confirm ancestry via merge-base. This prevents collisions when local branch names match unrelated historical branches.

No, a report-first git branch cleanup tool will not delete your current or default branch. It includes guardrails that never remove the checked-out branch or default branch, and never deletes branches classified as KEEP or SKIP even with explicit confirmation.