Git Maintenance Skill

Keep the Shell repo fast and healthy by automating safe Git maintenance.

When to use

• •Periodically (e.g., once a week).
• •After finishing a big feature branch.
• •When Git operations (status, fetch, log) start feeling slow.

Goals

• •Remove stale remote branches.
• •Clean up local merged branches (with your approval).
• •Keep objects packed and repo size under control, without risky operations.

Steps

1. •

   Show current repo status

   • •

     Run:

     bash

     git status
     git remote -v
     

   • •

     Confirm we are in the expected repository (Shell iOS project).

2. •

   Prune remote tracking branches

   • •

     Run:

     bash

     git fetch --prune
     git remote prune origin
     

   • •

     Explain: this removes local references to branches that were deleted on the remote.

3. •

   Suggest local branch cleanup

   • •

     List merged local branches:

     bash

     git branch --merged main
     

   • •

     Exclude important branches:

     • •main
     • •develop (if it exists)
     • •Any epic/* unless user confirms.
   • •

     Ask the user which merged branches to delete, then run:

     bash

     git branch -d <branch-name>
     

4. •

   Optional: pack objects and clean up

   • •

     Ask the user if they want to run lightweight garbage collection (or check for --gc argument):

     bash

     git gc
     

   • •

     Explain:

     • •This repacks objects and cleans up unnecessary files.
     • •Recommended occasionally; avoid --aggressive unless repo is extremely large and user explicitly requests it.
5. •

   Check for large files (optional)

   • •

     Run a simple size scan, for example:

     bash

     git rev-list --objects --all | sort -k 2 > /tmp/git-objects.txt
     

   • •

     Optionally warn if obviously large binary assets (e.g., > 5–10 MB) are found and suggest:

     • •Moving them out of the repo.
     • •Or using Git LFS if that ever becomes necessary.
6. •

   Summarize maintenance

   • •Number of remote refs pruned.
   • •Local branches deleted.
   • •Whether git gc was run.
   • •Any warnings about large files or unusual conditions.