Clean Git
Clean up the local Git branches and stashes you no longer need, right from the VS Code sidebar.
Over time, local branches and stashes pile up: merged features, branches deleted on the server, experiments, forgotten work in progress. Clean Git lists them, shows which branches no longer exist on the remote, and deletes the ones you pick in one click.
Features
- 📊 List all local branches with their status
- 🔄 Show which branches still exist on the remote (
git fetch --prune on refresh)
- 📦 Stashes tab: list stashes with their date, browse their changes file by file, and drop several at once
- 🗂️ Repository selector for multi-root workspaces and nested repositories
- ⚡ Automatic update when Git changes (checkout, new or deleted branch, stash, fetch…), without polling
- 🔀 Switch branch by clicking its name, browse its changes against the main branch file by file
- 🗑️ Delete several local branches at once, with confirmation
- 🔒 Current and main branches are protected from deletion
- 🎨 Follows your VS Code theme
Screenshots
Branch list: every local branch with its tags (current, main, remote, local only) and the date of its last commit.
Click the ⓘ icon on the right of a branch to see its changes. Click the ← arrow to go back to the list.
Branch changes: the files changed on a branch compared to the main branch, with the diff of each file.
Installation
Download the .vsix file from the GitHub releases, then in VS Code run Extensions: Install from VSIX... from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).
If the original extension by monkeykjy, or this extension under its previous name "Clean Git Branch", is installed, uninstall it first to avoid two similar views.
How to Use
- Open a folder or workspace containing one or more Git repositories
- Click the Clean Git icon in the activity bar
- Pick the Branches or Stashes tab
- Pick a repository in the selector (shown when there are several)
- Check the branches to delete and click Delete N branches, or the stashes to drop and click Drop N stashes
On the Branches tab, click the refresh icon to fetch the remote and update the remote status. Enable VS Code's git.autofetch setting to keep it up to date automatically.
Branches are sorted by last commit, newest first. The date of the last commit (MM-DD) is shown on the right of the tags; hover it for the full date and time.
Click a branch name to switch to it (git switch; Git refuses if your local changes would be overwritten). If an interrupted cherry-pick or revert blocks the switch, Clean Git offers to quit it first (git cherry-pick --quit / git revert --quit): the changes already applied are kept, only the interrupted operation is forgotten.
Click the ⓘ button on the right of a branch to see the changes it made since it left the main branch (compared from their common ancestor, so later commits on the main branch are not counted). The view shows the list of changed files, collapsed, with their added and deleted lines; open a file to load its diff. Click the back arrow to return to the list.
Stashes are listed newest first as stash@{N}: message, with their creation date. Click the ⓘ button on the right of a stash to see its changes the same way. Untracked files saved with git stash -u are not included. Very long diffs are cut after 5000 lines.
remote: the branch exists on the remotelocal only: no matching branch on the remote (never pushed, or deleted remotely)current: the checked-out branch (cannot be deleted)main: the default branch from origin/HEAD, else main or master (cannot be deleted)
Requirements
- VS Code 1.80.0 or higher
- Git installed (the one configured in VS Code's
git.path setting is used)
- A trusted workspace: the extension is disabled in Restricted Mode
Important Notes
- Delete operations only affect local branches, not remote branches
- Branches are deleted with
git branch -D (force): make sure their changes are merged first
- Stashes are dropped with
git stash drop: a dropped stash no longer appears in Git and is hard to recover
- Nested repositories are discovered up to
git.repositoryScanMaxDepth levels (VS Code setting, default 1)
Origin
This project is a fork of git-branch-pruner by monkeykjy, forked on 2026-09-24 from version 0.1.1. Since then it gained multi-repository support, automatic updates, a redesigned interface, and security and performance fixes. See the changelog for details.
Feedback
Found a bug or have a suggestion? Open an issue on GitHub.
Want to contribute or run it locally? See the development guide.
License
MIT
