cleanup

name	cleanup
description	Clean up stale research worktrees whose branches have been merged or deleted.
disable-model-invocation	true

Clean Up Ralph Worktrees

Keywords: ralph, research worktree cleanup, branch cleanup, post-research, stale worktree, MERGED, REMOTE DELETED, LOCAL ONLY, DIRTY worktree, git worktree remove

Prune stale ralph worktrees by checking if their branches have been merged or deleted on the remote.

Usage

• /ralph:cleanup - Scan and offer to remove stale worktrees

Instructions

1. List ralph worktrees:

   git worktree list
   

   • Filter for worktrees with paths containing claude/worktrees/research-
   • If none found, report "No ralph worktrees found." and exit

2. Classify each worktree: For each ralph worktree, extract the branch name and check its status:

   • MERGED: branch is merged into main (git branch --merged main includes it) — safe to remove
   • REMOTE DELETED: branch existed on remote but was deleted (git ls-remote --heads origin <branch> returns nothing AND the branch has upstream tracking configured) — likely merged via PR, safe to remove
   • LOCAL ONLY: branch was never pushed (no upstream tracking: git -C <worktree-path> rev-parse --abbrev-ref @{upstream} fails) — ambiguous, prompt operator
   • ACTIVE: branch exists on remote and is not merged — may have an open PR or ongoing work
   • DIRTY: worktree has uncommitted changes (git -C <worktree-path> status --porcelain is non-empty) — warn before removing, can combine with other statuses (e.g., "MERGED + DIRTY")

3. Present findings: Show a summary table of worktrees with their status and branch name. Example:

   Ralph worktrees:
   - research-my-topic (research/my-topic) — MERGED, safe to remove
   - research-other-topic (research/other-topic) — ACTIVE, branch on remote
   - research-old-thing (research/old-thing) — REMOTE DELETED, likely merged via PR
   - research-experiment (research/experiment) — LOCAL ONLY, never pushed
   - research-wip (research/wip) — ACTIVE + DIRTY, uncommitted changes
   

4. Ask which to remove:

   • Auto-suggest removing MERGED and REMOTE DELETED (safe to remove)
   • Prompt individually for LOCAL ONLY — ask whether the work is valuable or can be discarded. These are ambiguous: might be abandoned experiments or might be unpushed work the operator forgot about
   • Warn if any are DIRTY (have uncommitted changes) — require explicit confirmation
   • Skip ACTIVE worktrees unless the operator explicitly requests

5. Remove selected worktrees: For each worktree to remove:

   git worktree remove <worktree-path>
   

   • If removal fails (locked/dirty), use --force only with operator confirmation
   • Optionally delete the local branch: git branch -d <branch> (only if merged)

6. Report results:

   Cleaned up N ralph worktree(s).
   Remaining: M active worktree(s).