glab repo prune

Delete local Git branches whose merge request has been merged.

Synopsis

Delete local Git branches whose merge request has been merged on GitLab.

By default, the command queries GitLab for each local branch and only deletes branches that have at least one merged merge request and no merge requests still open from the same source branch.

Protected branches, the default branch, and the currently checked-out branch are never deleted.

This command only affects your local Git repository. Remote branches on GitLab are not touched.

Use –merged to skip the per-branch merge request lookup and instead rely on git branch --merged to decide which branches to delete. The default branch and protected branches are still fetched from GitLab in this mode. Falling back to Git is faster, but only detects fast-forward merges — squash and rebase merges look like distinct commits to Git and will not be reported as merged.

glab repo prune [flags]

Examples

# Preview branches that would be deleted
glab repo prune --dry-run

# Delete branches with merged MRs (after confirmation)
glab repo prune

# Delete without confirmation
glab repo prune --yes

# Exclude additional branches by name or glob pattern
glab repo prune --exclude wip-*,demo-branch

# Detect merged branches with Git instead of GitLab (faster, but misses squash and rebase merges)
glab repo prune --merged

Options

      --dry-run           Preview branches that would be deleted without deleting them.
  -e, --exclude strings   Branch name or glob pattern to exclude. Comma-separated or repeated.
      --merged            Use 'git branch --merged' instead of querying GitLab. Detects fast-forward merges only.
  -y, --yes               Skip the confirmation prompt.

Options inherited from parent commands

  -h, --help   Show help for this command.