Michael Boutin

Delete local and remote git branches

bashMay 10, 2026

Delete branches one at a time, or sweep up local branches whose upstream has already been deleted.

To delete a single branch, run one of these:

terminal
# Local
git branch -d BRANCH_NAME
 
# Remote
git push origin -d BRANCH_NAME

Bulk-clean stale local branches

After merging PRs, the remote branches get deleted but their local copies stick around. Start by pruning your remote-tracking refs so git knows which upstreams are gone:

terminal
git fetch --prune

List local branches whose upstream is now gone:

terminal
git branch -vv | grep ': gone' | awk '{print $1}'

Once the list looks right, pipe it into git branch -D to delete them in one shot:

terminal
git branch -vv | grep ': gone' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -r git branch -D

-D force-deletes, which is what you want here since merged squash/rebase branches often don't look merged to your local git.

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