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reap-ticket-branches

What it does​

reap-ticket-branches finds local git branches and worktrees left behind by a ticket that was closed or abandoned without ever getting a merged PR of its own: the case a PR-merge cleanup has no trigger for. Given a ticket reference (or an exact branch name) and one or more repo paths, it scans for every branch whose name contains that ticket's number as a delimited segment (841 matches fix/841-foo, never fix/8410-foo or fix/1841-foo), finds any dedicated worktree it lives in via git worktree list, and classifies each match against GitHub: merged via PR, open PR never merged, closed PR never merged, no PR found, or PR state unavailable (no gh, no auth, no GitHub remote).

It is strictly read-only. It never deletes anything itself. It prints findings and the exact git command(s) to run, so the actual destructive step stays a deliberate, visible action, still subject to whatever safety hooks gate a directly-run branch delete.

pr-merged's own branch/worktree cleanup step (Step 4) delegates here in direct-branch mode, passing the exact branch it already knows rather than re-running ticket matching. That keeps one implementation behind both the "PR merged" and "ticket closed without a PR" paths instead of two that can drift apart.

When to reach for it​

Say something like "check for stale branches for ticket 841" or "clean up leftover worktrees from issue 840". The skill's own description matches that pattern directly. /reap-ticket-branches <ticket-ref> --repo <path> also works explicitly, repeating --repo for more than one repo.

Reach for it any time a ticket gets closed by hand (superseded, abandoned, fixed a different way) with no PR of its own — the exact gap pr-merged doesn't cover, since its cleanup only fires on a PR-merge event.

Why "ticket," not "issue"​

This skill is deliberately tracker-agnostic: the reference it matches is just a number embedded in a branch name, regardless of whether the source is GitHub Issues, Jira, Linear, or Asana. It never calls an Issue-tracker API for that number — only local git and gh pr list for PR-state classification. So it isn't tied to any one tracker's naming, and works from an explicit repo path with no config file and no assumption about tracker conventions.

Common questions​

Does this skill delete anything?

No. Every finding comes with the command(s) to run, never a command it runs for you. A safe git branch -d for a confirmed-merged branch; both the safe -d attempt and a force -D fallback (explicitly labeled as needing your own confirmation) for every other state.

What if the branch is the one currently checked out?

No delete command is offered for it at all — switch away first, then re-run.

What if a branch lives in a dedicated worktree?

The worktree remove command is listed ahead of the branch delete, since git worktree remove fails on a path git still considers checked out.

What if there's no GitHub remote, or gh isn't set up?

The git-level finding (branch, commit, worktree) is still reported; PR state is reported as unavailable rather than guessed at.

It's working if​

  • Every match is reported with its branch, short commit, worktree path (if any), and GitHub PR state.
  • The currently checked-out branch is flagged but never offered a delete command.
  • A merged branch gets a safe -d recommendation; anything else gets both -d and a labeled -D fallback.
  • Nothing is deleted by the script itself — only printed.

Where it fits​

ticket closed without a merged PR -> reap-ticket-branches (--ticket mode)
PR merged, remote branch deleted  -> pr-merged -> reap-ticket-branches (--branch mode, internal)

Two different triggers, one shared implementation for the actual branch/worktree discovery and classification underneath both.