How to Safely Delete All Local Git Branches

Cleaning up your local branches can make your workflow tidier and less confusing. If you want to delete all branches except ones you want to keep (for example, dev and main), you can do it with this one-liner:

git branch | grep -v 'dev' | grep -v 'main' | xargs git branch -D

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What Each Part Does

git branch

Lists all your local branches.

terminal git:(dev) ✗ git branch
  bar
  baz
* dev
  foo
  main

grep -v <branch-you-want-to-keep>

Filters out (-v) the branches named dev or main from the list, so they won’t be deleted.

terminal git:(dev) ✗ git branch | grep -v dev | grep -v main
  bar
  baz
  foo

xargs

Takes each branch name from the filtered list and passes it to the next command.

terminal git:(dev) ✗ git branch | grep -v dev | grep -v main | xargs
  bar baz foo

git branch -D

Force-deletes (-D) each branch given by xargs.
Warning: This will delete branches even if they haven’t been merged!

terminal git:(dev) ✗ git branch | grep -v dev | grep -v main | xargs | git branch -D
  Deleted branch bar (was <some-sha>).
  Deleted branch baz (was <some-sha>).
  Deleted branch foo (was <some-sha>).

For a safer delete (only deletes merged branches), use git branch -d instead of git branch -D.