git-branches

An interactive Git branch browser powered by fzf, with rich previews for GitHub PRs and CI status. It’s fast, keyboard-first, and designed for day-to-day workflows: jump to branches, spin up local tracking from remotes, open the PR in your browser, or prune branches in bulk.

🍺 Homebrew CI:

TL;DR ⚡️

# Install (Homebrew tap)
brew tap chmouel/git-branches https://github.com/chmouel/git-branches
brew install --HEAD chmouel/git-branches/git-branches

# Browse local branches (preview on top)
git-branches

# Browse remote branches (pick a remote)
git-branches -r

# Show pushed-status icons for local branches
git-branches -s   # add -S to show all

# Show GitHub Actions status (fetch over network)
git-branches --checks

Highlights

• fzf-native UX: reverse list, previews, key bindings, multi-select for deletes.
• Rich preview: PR status (Open/Draft/Merged/Closed), OSC-8 link to the PR, CI combined status, and the last 10 commits with colors.
• GitHub awareness: shows whether a local branch exists on the remote (-s) and the CI status for the PR head commit.
• One-keystroke actions: checkout, open PR (ctrl-o), delete quickly (alt-k).

Requirements

• git and fzf on PATH
• Python 3.12+ (uv-managed)
• Optional: GITHUB_TOKEN (improves rate limits and enables private repos)
• Optional: a Nerd Font for icons (fallback text is still readable)

Installation 🍺

• Local dev via uv

  • make install
  • make run (or pass flags with ARGS="...")

• System-wide (optional)

  • From this directory: uv tool install .
  • Then invoke the console script: git-branches

Homebrew (Tap)

You can install via a Homebrew tap that ships a Formula for git-branches.

Option A — tap this repo directly (HEAD installs from the main branch):

brew tap chmouel/git-branches https://github.com/chmouel/git-branches
brew install --HEAD chmouel/git-branches/git-branches

Option B — local developer tap (no remote push needed):

TAP="${USER}/git-branches-dev"
brew tap-new "$TAP"
TAP_DIR="$(brew --repo "$TAP")"
mkdir -p "$TAP_DIR/Formula"
cp Formula/git-branches.rb "$TAP_DIR/Formula/"
brew install --HEAD "$TAP/git-branches"

Or use the Makefile helper (does the same steps for you):

make brew-local
# or pick a custom tap name
make brew-local TAP="${USER}/git-branches-dev"

Option C — copy Formula/git-branches.rb into your own GitHub tap repo (recommended for teams) and install:

brew tap <org>/<tap>
brew install --HEAD <org>/<tap>/git-branches

Notes:

• The Formula uses Homebrew’s Python virtualenv and installs git-branches along with its Python dependencies.
• Runtime dependencies git and fzf are declared and installed by Homebrew.
• --HEAD installs from the main branch. For a pinned/stable release, update the Formula url and sha256 to a tagged tarball.

Quickstart 🚀

• Browse and checkout local branches:
  • git-branches
• Browse remotes and checkout (creates tracking branch if needed):
  • git-branches -r (select remote interactively)
  • git-branches -R origin
• Deletion workflows:
  • git-branches -d (delete local; multi-select)
  • git-branches -D -R origin (delete remote)
• See if local branches exist on the remote:
  • git-branches -s (shows pushed status with default limit of 10)
  • git-branches -s -S (disable default limit)

Command-line options 🧭

• -r: Browse remote branches (choose remote via fzf)
• -R <remote>: Browse a specific remote (e.g., origin)
• -d: Delete local branches (multi-select)
• -D: Delete remote branches (multi-select)
• -s: Show pushed status for local branches (GitHub API)
• -n <N>: Limit to first N branches
• -S: With -s, disable default limit (show all)
• -C: Disable colors
• -l: List-only mode (no checkout)
• --refresh: Force refresh of PR cache (ignore stale cache and ETag)
• --checks: Fetch and show GitHub Actions status (preview and a small indicator in rows). Without this flag, cached results (if available) are still displayed, but no network calls are made for checks.

Icons legend 🔤

• PR state:
  • Open:  (green)
  • Draft:  (yellow)
  • Merged:  (magenta)
  • Closed:  (red)
• GitHub Actions:
  • In progress:  (yellow)
  • Success:  (green)
  • Failed/Timed out:  (red)
  • Cancelled:  (red)
  • Skipped/Neutral:  (cyan)

Tip: Use a Nerd Font for best results. Without it, the text remains legible.

Key bindings (fzf)

• ctrl-o: Open the PR for the highlighted ref in the default browser
• alt-k: Force-delete highlighted local branch (quick action)

Shell Completion 🔌

Supported shells and scripts under contrib/:

• Zsh: _git-branches
• Bash: git-branches.bash
• Fish: git-branches.fish

Zsh

Add the contrib directory to your fpath in .zshrc and re-init completions:

fpath+=($PWD/contrib)
autoload -U compinit && compinit

Use the absolute path to your clone instead of $PWD in your dotfiles.

Bash

Source the completion script from your .bashrc or .bash_profile:

source /absolute/path/to/contrib/git-branches.bash

Fish

Copy or symlink the Fish completion to your user completions directory:

mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions
ln -sf /absolute/path/to/contrib/git-branches.fish ~/.config/fish/completions/git-branches.fish

Arch Linux (PKGBUILD / AUR-style)

This repository includes a PKGBUILD under aur/ for a -git style package (builds from HEAD).

• Build locally with makepkg (requires base-devel):

cd aur
makepkg -sci --noconfirm

How it works

• Uses git for data (branch lists, recent commits) and fzf for the UI.
• Detects GitHub repository from the upstream of the current branch when possible, falling back to origin or the first remote.
• For -s and preview CI status, calls the GitHub API with Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN when set.

Performance and Caching ⚙️

To improve performance and reduce API calls, git-branches batches git metadata and PR queries and caches PR data locally.

• Git metadata: branches and last-commit info are fetched via a single git for-each-ref call.
• PR list: fetched via REST in one call (/pulls?state=open&per_page=100) with ETag support; a small slice of recently closed PRs is also fetched to catch merges.
• Disk cache: ~/.cache/git-branches/prs.json with timestamp, etag, and a {head.ref -> PR} map. Default TTL: 5 minutes.

Controls:

• GIT_BRANCHES_OFFLINE=1: skip all GitHub API calls.
• GIT_BRANCHES_PREFETCH_DETAILS=1: batch GraphQL for labels/reviews/body to make previews instant.
• GIT_BRANCHES_NO_CACHE=1: ignore and do not write disk cache; do not use in-memory caches.
• --refresh or GIT_BRANCHES_REFRESH=1: ignore existing cache and ETag this run, then write a fresh cache.

Environment Variables 🔧

• GIT_BRANCHES_OFFLINE=1: Run fully offline (no GitHub requests).
• GIT_BRANCHES_NO_CACHE=1: Bypass disk/memory caching and ETag.
• GIT_BRANCHES_REFRESH=1: Force refresh of caches for this run.
• GIT_BRANCHES_PREFETCH_DETAILS=1: Prefetch PR details (GraphQL batches).
• GIT_BRANCHES_SHOW_CHECKS=1: Allow fetching Actions status (same as --checks). If unset, cached checks are still displayed; no fetches.
• GIT_BRANCHES_NO_PROGRESS=1: Disable spinners/progress indicators.

Troubleshooting 🛠️

• “fzf not found”: Install fzf and ensure it’s on PATH (brew install fzf, apt install fzf, etc.).

• “Not in a git repository”: Run within a git repo.

• No icons? Install a Nerd Font and configure your terminal to use it.

• Low API rate limit? Set GITHUB_TOKEN (a classic or fine-grained PAT works).

• Homebrew says “formula not in a tap”: create a local tap and install:

  TAP="${USER}/git-branches-dev"
  brew tap-new "$TAP"
  TAP_DIR="$(brew --repo "$TAP")"
  mkdir -p "$TAP_DIR/Formula"
  cp Formula/git-branches.rb "$TAP_DIR/Formula/"
  brew install --HEAD "$TAP/git-branches"
  

Development 🧪

• Lint: make lint (auto-fix: make fix)
• Tests: make test (pytest)
• Dev loop: make dev (ruff fix → pytest → ruff format)
• Format: make format (ruff)

License

See the repository’s LICENSE file.