rimba clean

Prune stale worktree references, or detect and remove worktrees whose branches have been merged into main or are stale (no recent commits).

Running rimba clean without any mode flags prunes stale remote-tracking refs across all configured remotes.

Synopsis

rimba clean [--merged | --stale] [flags]

Examples

rimba clean                              # Prune stale worktree references
rimba clean --dry-run                    # Preview what would be pruned
rimba clean --merged                     # Detect and remove merged worktrees (with confirmation)
rimba clean --merged --force             # Remove merged worktrees without confirmation
rimba clean --merged --dry-run           # Show merged worktrees without removing
rimba clean --stale                      # Detect and remove stale worktrees (with confirmation)
rimba clean --stale --stale-days 7       # Use a 7-day threshold instead of 14
rimba clean --stale --force              # Remove stale worktrees without confirmation
rimba clean --stale --dry-run            # Show stale worktrees without removing

Common workflows

After a busy sprint: remove all merged branches

rimba clean --merged --dry-run   # Preview first
rimba clean --merged --force     # Then remove

Remove dormant worktrees

rimba clean --stale --stale-days 7   # More aggressive: 7-day threshold

Automated cleanup via Git hook

rimba hook install
# Installs a post-merge hook that runs 'rimba clean --merged --force' on git pull

--merged and --stale are mutually exclusive. --merged works with or without rimba init. Without a config file, it falls back to auto-detecting the default branch. By default, rimba clean prunes stale remote-tracking refs across all configured remotes (not just origin).

Flags

Flag	Description
--dry-run	Show what would be pruned/removed without making changes
--merged	Detect and remove worktrees whose branches are merged into main
--stale	Remove worktrees with no recent commits
--stale-days	Number of days to consider a worktree stale (default: 14, used with --stale)
--force	Skip confirmation prompt when used with --merged or --stale

Related commands

• rimba hook · automate clean --merged --force via a post-merge hook
• rimba remove · remove a single named worktree
• rimba status · use --stale-days to spot stale worktrees