Git Alias to Delete Branches with Gone Remotes

Delete Branches with Gone Remotes

After a PR is merged and the remote branch is deleted, the local branch often remains with a "gone" upstream. This alias finds and removes them:

[alias]
    gone = !git fetch -p && git branch -vv | grep ': gone]' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -r git branch -D

Breaking Down the Pipeline

1. git fetch -p fetches and prunes stale remote-tracking references
2. git branch -vv lists branches with verbose tracking info
3. grep ': gone]' filters branches whose upstream is marked as "gone"
4. awk '{print $1}' extracts just the branch name
5. xargs -r git branch -D force-deletes each branch (the -r flag prevents running with empty input)

Understanding "Gone" Branches

When you create a local branch that tracks a remote branch, and then the remote branch is deleted (e.g., after a PR merge), git branch -vv shows:

  feature/login a1b2c3d [origin/feature/login: gone] Add login page
  feature/api   e4f5g6h [origin/feature/api: gone] Add API routes
  main          i7j8k9l [origin/main] Latest commit

The : gone] marker indicates the upstream no longer exists.

Why -D Instead of -d?

The alias uses -D (force delete) because the local branch may contain commits that are not reachable from the current branch, even though they were merged via a pull request (which creates a merge commit on the remote). The -d flag would refuse to delete in this case, producing false negatives.

When to Use This vs cleanup

Alias	Approach	Best for
cleanup	Deletes branches merged into current branch	Local workflow
gone	Deletes branches whose remote was deleted	PR-based workflow

In PR-based workflows (GitHub, GitLab), gone is usually more accurate because merges happen on the remote, and the local branch may not be recognized as "merged" locally.