cleanup-worktrees

---

name: cleanup-worktrees description: Reclaim disk space from stale git worktrees: scans configured roots, classifies each as cleanable (merged PR, upstream gone, merged into the default branch, stale) or skipped (dirty, locked, unpushed), shows the cleanable set grouped by reason with sizes, and removes the ones you pick. Use when the user asks to clean up git worktrees, delete merged worktrees, prune stale worktrees, free disk space from worktrees, or list cleanable worktrees.

cleanup-worktrees

Reclaim disk space from git worktrees that are safe to delete. The bundled CLI discovers worktrees under configured roots, classifies each, and removes the ones you select - re-validating before every removal, never --force, and never touching a worktree with uncommitted, locked, or unpushed work.

Quick reference

• Config: ~/.config/wild-horses/cleanup-worktrees/config.json - {"repos": [{"path": "..."}], "parents": [{"path": "...", "depth": 1}], "stale_days": 30, "last_confirmed_at": "..."}. repos are direct repo paths; parents are dirs whose subdirs are auto-scanned (depth = levels to descend, default 1).
• CLI: python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/cleanup_worktrees_cli.py" <subcommand>
• Subcommands: scan, remove --paths P1 [P2 ...], config list, config add-repo PATH, config add-parent PATH [--depth N], config remove PATH, config set-stale-days N, config confirm
• Every subcommand prints JSON on stdout. Parse it; do not screen-scrape.
• Exit codes: 0 means the command itself succeeded (per-worktree outcomes live inside the JSON); non-zero means a CLI-level error (bad path, corrupt config, a path outside $HOME).
• Cleanable reasons: pr-merged, pr-closed, upstream-gone, merged-to-default, stale. Skip reasons: dirty, locked, unpushed (never removed).

Procedure

1. First-run confirm

Run:

python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/cleanup_worktrees_cli.py" config list

• Empty config (no repos and no parents): there is nothing to scan yet. Tell the user and ask which roots to track. Add direct repos with config add-repo PATH and parent dirs with config add-parent PATH [--depth N] (use --depth 3 for nested layouts like emdash/worktrees/<repo>/<harness>/<branch>). Then run config confirm and continue to step 2.
• last_confirmed_at is null, or the resolved roots changed since you last confirmed: print the repos and parents paths and ask the user to confirm them with a single yes/no. On yes, run config confirm. On no, adjust with config add-* / config remove, then config confirm.
• Already confirmed and roots unchanged: skip straight to step 2.

2. Scan

python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/cleanup_worktrees_cli.py" scan

The output is {scanned, cleanable: [...], skipped: [...], errors: [...]}. Each cleanable entry carries {index, path, repo, branch, reason, reason_detail, size_bytes, size_human}. scanned is the count of candidate worktrees inspected (main worktrees and bare repos are already excluded).

Empty cleanable: report Nothing to clean. Scanned N worktrees. Summarize the skipped count if non-zero (e.g. 3 skipped: 2 dirty, 1 unpushed). Surface any errors briefly. Done.

errors[] carries non-fatal problems (a missing parent dir, a gh lookup that failed, a path refused for being outside $HOME). A gh-failed / gh-unavailable error means PR signals were unknown for some worktrees: a worktree still classifies under any non-PR reason that applies, but one whose only cleanable signal would have been a merged PR (a squash/rebase merge with local-only commits) drops out of cleanable and is reported as skipped: unpushed until gh is reachable. So treat a gh-unavailable scan as possibly incomplete, not just a harmless banner - tell the user some merged worktrees may be missing and a re-run once gh works could surface more. It still never blocks the flow.

3. Render the report

Group cleanable worktrees by reason. For each group, show a header with the count and group size, then one line per worktree: its index, path, size_human, and reason_detail when present. Show the total reclaimable size at the top. Plain ASCII, no emoji unless the user opted in.

Cleanable worktrees (total reclaimable: 31.4G):

PR merged (4 worktrees, 12.1G):
  [1] /Users/you/grafts/carrot/CAT-39996-...  4.2G  (PR #12345 merged 2026-05-10)
  [2] /Users/you/grafts/carrot/CAT-65950-...  2.4G  (PR #14102 merged 2026-06-01)

Upstream gone (2 worktrees, 6.8G):
  [5] /Users/you/groundcrew/worktrees/maple-...  3.4G

Stale >30d (3 worktrees, 12.5G):
  [7] /Users/you/grafts/carrot/old-spike-...  5.0G  (last commit 2026-01-12)

Skipped: 4 dirty, 1 locked, 2 unpushed.

4. Ask for selection

Ask a single yes/no: Remove all 9 cleanable worktrees (reclaim ~31.4G)? (no = tell me which indices to keep or remove). On "no", let the user say "remove 1,3,5" or "keep 2,4"; resolve their answer to a concrete list of indices, then map those indices to the worktrees' path values from the scan output.

5. Remove

Call remove with the chosen worktrees' canonical paths. Single-quote every path. These paths come from the filesystem, so a path could contain spaces (which would split into the wrong arguments) or shell metacharacters like $(...), backticks, or ;. Single quotes are required, not double quotes: "$(...)" and "`...`" still run command substitution inside double quotes, so a crafted worktree path could inject a command. Single quotes suppress all expansion. If a path itself contains a single quote, escape it as '\''.

python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/cleanup_worktrees_cli.py" remove --paths '/Users/you/a' '/Users/you/b'

The output is {removed, skipped, errors, total_bytes_reclaimed, total_human}:

field	meaning
removed[]	{path, branch, bytes_reclaimed}; may carry warning: "branch-prune-skipped" + warning_detail. A removed worktree was always safe to remove (worktrees with unique local commits are skipped as unpushed, never removed); the warning only means the orphaned branch ref could not be deleted afterward (e.g. it is checked out in another worktree), so the ref is kept
skipped[]	{path, reason, detail?}; reason is now-dirty / unpushed / locked (state changed since the scan), already-gone (path vanished), or main-worktree (refused)
errors[]	{path, error, detail?}; error is remove-failed, not-a-worktree, or outside-home

remove re-validates every path before touching it, so a worktree that became dirty or gained unpushed commits between the scan and now is left untouched and reported under skipped. This is expected, not a failure.

If gh is unavailable at remove time (network down, rate-limited), a worktree that scan had classified pr-merged via a squash/rebase merge (its commits durable only via the PR head) can come back skipped with reason unpushed - the CLI can no longer confirm the merge, so it fails safe and defers the removal. Tell the user it's a transient gh issue, not lost work; re-running once gh is reachable will remove it. Likewise, a branch whose remote was deleted and whose only PR was closed unmerged is treated as unpushed (its commits live nowhere durable), not pr-closed - that narrowing is intentional, since closed-unmerged local commits are the user's to keep.

6. Summary

Terse report - only what changed or needs attention:

Removed 6 worktrees, reclaimed 18.0G.
Skipped 1: /Users/you/foo (now-dirty since scan).
Branch-prune warnings: 1 (paulb/CAT-X - branch checked out elsewhere).

Common mistakes

• Don't remove a worktree the scan didn't mark cleanable. Only pass remove the path values from the scan's cleanable array. Hand-picking arbitrary paths bypasses the reason taxonomy the user reviewed.
• Don't pass --force or hand-roll git worktree remove. The CLI removes without --force by design, so a worktree that is unexpectedly dirty is refused rather than blown away. Never substitute a raw git command to "make it work".
• Don't treat skipped removals as errors. now-dirty, unpushed, locked, and already-gone mean the CLI protected work (or the path was already gone). Report them plainly; do not retry with force.
• Don't skip the first-run confirm. When last_confirmed_at is null or the roots changed, surface the resolved repos/parents and get a yes before scanning - the user needs to see which trees will be walked.
• Don't claim "nothing to clean" when cleanable is empty but skipped or errors are not. Summarize the skip counts and any errors so the user knows worktrees were found but protected.
• Don't re-run scan to refresh sizes after a removal. The remove output already reports total_bytes_reclaimed; a fresh scan is only needed if the user wants to clean more.
• Don't auto-confirm removals. Step 4 requires the user to approve the set (all, or a chosen index list) before any remove call.