/recover — Worktree & Branch Cleanup

Scan for orphaned worktrees, stale branches, and partial work left behind by crashed or abandoned Claude Code sessions. Read-only by default — reports findings and waits for approval before cleanup.

Invocation: deliberately model-invocable — scanning is read-only. Every cleanup action is gated on explicit user approval.

When to Use

• After a system crash or forced session termination
• When parallel session hooks warn about stale processes
• When you find commits on unknown branches
• Periodic hygiene (monthly or after heavy parallel work)

Instructions

0. Detect the default branch

Don't assume main. Resolve it once and use it everywhere below:

DEFAULT=$(git symbolic-ref --short refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null | sed 's|^origin/||')
DEFAULT=${DEFAULT:-$(git remote show origin 2>/dev/null | sed -n 's/.*HEAD branch: //p')}
DEFAULT=${DEFAULT:-main}   # no remote at all — fall back and note it in the report

1. List all worktrees

git worktree list --porcelain

Identify:

• Recently touched worktrees: files or .git metadata modified in the last hours — treat as possibly live. git worktree list cannot tell whether a session is actually running; without a lock/heartbeat file or process evidence, classify as unknown activity and never as orphaned.
• Candidate-orphaned worktrees: no recent modification and no activity signal — proceed to inspection, still gated on user approval before any cleanup
• Stale entries: Git tracks a worktree but the directory is gone

2. Inspect orphaned worktrees

For each orphaned worktree:

git -C <worktree-path> status --short
git -C <worktree-path> branch --show-current
git -C <worktree-path> log --oneline -3
git log "$DEFAULT"..<branch-name> --oneline

Classify each as:

• CLEAN: No unmerged commits, no uncommitted changes — safe to remove
• HAS COMMITS: Unmerged commits exist — needs merge decision
• HAS CHANGES: Uncommitted work — needs save decision
• BOTH: Unmerged commits AND uncommitted changes — needs careful handling

3. List stale branches

git branch --no-merged "$DEFAULT"
git remote prune origin --dry-run
git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --format='%(refname:short) %(committerdate:relative) %(subject)' refs/heads/

Classify:

• MERGED: Already in the default branch — safe to delete
• STALE: Last commit >7 days ago, not merged — flag for review
• ACTIVE: Recent commits — leave alone

4. Check for prunable git state

git worktree prune --dry-run

5. Report

RECOVER — [DATE]

WORKTREES:
- Active: [N]
- Orphaned: [N]
  - [path] — [status] — [branch] — [last commit]
- Stale entries: [N]

BRANCHES:
- Merged (safe to delete): [list]
- Stale (>7 days, not merged): [list]
- Active: [list]

PROPOSED ACTIONS:
1. [action] — [target] — [reason]

OVERALL: [CLEAN / N items need attention]

6. Cleanup (with approval only)

Only proceed when explicitly approved. Options:

• Remove orphaned worktree (CLEAN): git worktree remove <path>
• Merge unmerged commits: git merge <branch> --no-ff
• Cherry-pick specific commits: git cherry-pick <hash>
• Delete merged branches: git branch -d <branch>
• Delete stale branches (confirmed discard): git branch -D <branch>
• Prune stale entries: git worktree prune
• Prune remote refs: git remote prune origin

Design Principles

• Read-only by default. Report, wait for approval.
• Preserve work. Default to merge/cherry-pick over discard.
• Specific. Show exact commit hashes, file lists, branch names.
• Fast. Git commands only. Under 15 seconds for scan.