refresh-repo

name	refresh-repo
description	Check PR merge readiness, sync local repo, cleanup stale worktrees; optional cross-repo sweep and stale-branch prune modes

Git Refresh

Check open PR merge-readiness status, sync the local repository, and cleanup stale worktrees.

State warning: Branch state, remote tracking, and PR status change between invocations. Re-run all git/gh commands from Step 1.

Steps

1. Identify Open PRs

CRITICAL: Always check for open PRs, regardless of current branch.

# Check for PR from current branch
gh pr view --json state,number,title 2>/dev/null

# ALWAYS also check for any open PRs by the user
gh pr list --author @me --state open --json number,title,headRefName

2. Report Merge-Readiness Status

For each open PR, check and report.

Run the canonical PR-readiness gate from /gh-cli-patterns. Replace <OWNER>, <REPO>, <PR_NUMBER> per the placeholder legend in that skill.

Merge-ready criteria — all of the following must hold:

Field	Required	Status
state	OPEN	Not ready
mergeable	MERGEABLE	Not ready
mergeStateStatus	CLEAN or HAS_HOOKS	Not ready (BEHIND, BLOCKED, DIRTY, UNSTABLE, UNKNOWN, DRAFT)
isDraft	false	Not ready
reviewDecision	APPROVED or null	Not ready
statusCheckRollup.state	SUCCESS	Not ready
All reviewThreads.isResolved	true	Not ready — unresolved threads
reviewThreads.pageInfo.hasNextPage	false	Not ready — >100 threads, paginate

3. Sync Workflow

1. Record the current branch and worktree path.
2. Fetch origin with stale remote branch pruning, but without tag updates: git fetch origin --no-tags --prune --force
3. Determine the default branch from origin/HEAD, falling back to main or master.
4. Restore the default-branch worktree to the default branch. If a worktree is checked out to the default branch, keep it on the default branch. After a feature PR merges, that worktree is sometimes left on the now-[gone] feature branch. Detect and fix:
   • Resolve the default worktree path from git worktree list --porcelain, matching on the branch refs/heads/<default> entry — do not rely on basename matching of paths, since a feature branch named feature/<default> would also produce a path basename of <default>.
   • If that path exists and git -C <path> rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD does not equal <default> (this is safer than symbolic-ref --short HEAD, which errors on detached HEAD during a rebase or commit-checkout):
     • If the worktree has uncommitted changes (git -C <path> status --porcelain is non-empty), stash them first with git -C <path> stash push -u -m "refresh-repo: auto-stash before <default> restore" and surface the stash reference in the summary so the user can recover.
     • git -C <path> checkout <default>.
   • Never use --force, never discard uncommitted work, never reset.
5. Sync the default branch from its dedicated worktree with a fast-forward only merge, using git -C <path> so the merge always targets the default worktree regardless of the current shell directory: git -C <path> merge --ff-only origin/<default>. If the default worktree is dirty or divergent, report it and skip instead of resetting.
6. Delete local branches already merged into the default branch with git branch -d. Never delete main/master/develop/current branches, worktree-checked-out branches, or branches with open PRs.
7. Conclude the operation without switching branches. Because Steps 4 and 5 used git -C <path> to operate on the default worktree directly, the current shell's working directory and branch were never changed — each worktree owns its checkout.

Do not use git fetch --tags, git fetch --prune-tags, or git pull --tags during the normal refresh. Tags are audited separately in Step 4 so local-only non-release tags and tag rewrites are not deleted by a broad fetch refspec.

4. Tag Audit And Cleanup

Treat origin as authoritative for release tags only.

Use native Git commands to compare local tags to remote tags:

git for-each-ref '--format=%(refname:short)' refs/tags
git show-ref --tags
git ls-remote --tags --refs origin

For local-only tags:

1. If the tag name matches the release tag pattern v[0-9]*, delete it with git tag -d <tag>.
2. If the tag name does not match the release tag pattern, report it and do not delete it.

For tags that exist both locally and on origin but point at different objects, report the mismatch and do not force-update it automatically. Never delete or rewrite remote tags.

5. Worktree Cleanup

Only remove a worktree if it is confirmed stale.

Stale definition: No open PR, no uncommitted changes, and either:

• The branch has a merged PR (most recently merged by mergedAt) whose headRefOid matches the local branch HEAD (gh pr list --state merged --head <branch> --json number,headRefOid,mergedAt)
• Its remote tracking branch was deleted ([gone] in git branch -vv) and it has no commits ahead of the default branch (git log origin/<default>..HEAD --oneline is empty)

Branches with open PRs, local-only branches without PRs, and worktrees with uncommitted changes are NEVER stale.

For each worktree from git worktree list:

1. Skip the default branch worktree, the current branch, and bare repo entries
2. If the branch has an open PR, skip — it is never stale
3. Check if stale using the definition above
4. If not stale, skip
5. Run git worktree remove <path> — NEVER use --force
6. If Git blocks removal (dirty worktree), report it and skip
7. If removed, also delete the branch: git branch -d <branch>. If this fails only because a squash-merged branch is not reachable from local default, use git branch -D <branch> only when the merged PR headRefOid matched the local branch HEAD before removing the worktree.

Finish with git worktree prune.

6. Summary

Report: PRs assessed as merge-ready (if any), tags deleted or reported, branches cleaned up, worktrees removed, default-branch worktree restorations (with any stash references created), current branch, and sync status.

Cross-Repo Operating Modes

Optional modes that change /refresh-repo from single-repo to workspace-wide. Both modes reuse the stale-worktree definition from Step 5 and the deletion rules from Step 5.7 — they only add new pre-filters, never weaken existing safety.

--sweep [<repo-glob>]

Multi-repo cleanup of abandoned local branches. For every default-branch worktree in your workspace (caller can pass a custom glob if their layout differs), resolve that repo's own default branch first (per Step 3 above — main on trunk repos, develop on git-flow repos), then for every local branch where git log origin/<default>..HEAD is non-empty:

1. Content-equivalence check: compute merge base, diff each touched file against current origin/<default>. If every touched file is content-equivalent to (or older than) origin/<default>, delete the branch and its worktree. Already-on-the-default-branch contributions do not deserve a PR.
2. Workaround filter: if the diff (a) modifies 1 of N files sharing a common shape with no written rationale for the asymmetry, or (b) references a "sync mechanism" / "auto-update" by name that grep -r <name> . returns zero matches for, surface for human review. Do not open a draft.
3. Only branches passing both checks become draft PRs.
4. Per-repo summary: branches deleted as content-equivalent, branches surfaced for review, branches PR-ified, branches unchanged.

Origin: the 2026-05-22 sweep opened 8 dead PRs against ansible-splunk (6 already-on-main duplicates, 2 workaround anti-patterns). Both filters above would have caught all 8 before any CI ran.

--prune-stale <days> (default 60)

Delete local branches with no open PR and no push activity within <days>. Expands Step 5's stale definition with a time threshold; still respects every safety rule (never delete branches with open PRs, uncommitted changes, or the current checkout).

Per branch: if gh pr list --head <branch> is empty AND git log -1 --format=%cr <branch> is older than <days>, run git worktree remove <path> (per Step 5 — never --force) then git branch -d <branch>.

Use --prune-stale 30 for an aggressive sweep, --prune-stale 90 for conservative.

Common Mistake to Avoid

DO NOT skip the PR check just because you're on main. The user may have multiple open PRs from different branches.

Always run gh pr list --author @me --state open to find work that needs merging.

Do not use --prune-tags as a shortcut for tag cleanup. Git treats tag pruning as an explicit refspec prune and can delete local-only tags that are not release artifacts.

Related Skills

• sync-main (git-workflows) — Syncs the default branch and merges into current or all PR branches
• rebase-pr (github-workflows) — Rebase-merge workflow for merging individual PRs
• git-workflow-standards (git-standards) — Worktree structure and branch hygiene conventions
• gh-cli-patterns (github-workflows) — Canonical gh CLI command shapes, placeholder convention, PR-readiness gate, default-branch detection