git-detect-merged

name	git-detect-merged
description	Detect whether local branches/worktrees have been merged into a target branch (default: main), including squash merges. Args: [target-branch]

Git Detect Merged

Detect whether local branches and worktrees have their changes already merged into a target branch. Handles both regular merges and squash merges.

Args

/git-detect-merged [target-branch] [trunk-branch]

• target-branch — branch to check against. Default: main.
• trunk-branch — branch the scope pre-filter measures against when it differs from the target. Default: main. Pass it ONLY in repos whose trunk is not main (e.g. master).

Run the detector

~/.claude/scripts/git-detect-merged [target-branch] [trunk-branch]

The script performs the entire detection: candidate selection, scope pre-filter, regular- and squash-merge classification, and active-work status. NEVER re-derive any part of it by hand. The fail-closed logic lives in the script, and a hand-run git branch --merged misses squash merges and ignores the scope pre-filter.

Exit codes: 0 → table produced, 1 → runtime error, 2 → usage error. Non-zero → report the error and STOP.

Output

Four # metadata lines, then a TSV table with a header row:

# target: main
# trunk: main
# upstream: origin/main  behind: 0  last-fetch: 2026-08-18T19:23:40+0900
# candidates: 8  merged: 7  unmerged: 1  out-of-scope: 0
branch	merge	status	worktree	reason
wt-clean	regular	clean	/repo/.worktrees/wt-clean	-
wt-dirty	regular	dirty	/repo/.worktrees/wt-dirty	uncommitted-changes

Only merged branches get a row. The unmerged and out-of-scope counts cover every branch the script examined and excluded, so an excluded branch is visible rather than absent.

Read the upstream line before the table. A target that is behind its upstream does not yet contain the merges it is being asked about, so branches that really did land come back unmerged. The script warns on stderr when behind is not 0; treat any non-zero value as making the whole table provisional, and say so when reporting. last-fetch is when the repo last contacted the remote at all — a value hours or days old means even behind: 0 may be measuring against stale data, so fetch first when the counts look wrong.

Column	Values
branch	Branch name
merge	regular or squash
status	clean, dirty, checked-out, unknown
worktree	Absolute path, or - when the branch has no worktree
reason	Why the status is not clean, or - when it is

clean is the ONLY status meaning "safe to delete". The other three each block deletion:

Status	Meaning
dirty	Worktree has uncommitted changes, or untracked files outside .tmp/
checked-out	Branch occupies the main working tree
unknown	State unverifiable — worktree prunable, missing, at a path other than <repo>/.worktrees/<branch>, or its status command failed

A branch checked out in its OWN <repo>/.worktrees/<branch> is not active work — that is the expected layout, and git-cleanup-merged removes the worktree before deleting the branch.

Report

Present the table to the user. State the target branch, plus the unmerged and out-of-scope counts. When behind is not 0, say that first and state that the table cannot be trusted until the target catches up.