git-maintain by @laurigates

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when...	Use the alternative when...
Running `git gc`, repacking objects, or shrinking the `.git` directory	Use `git-coworker-check` first if other agents may be writing to the same checkout
Pruning merged local branches and old stashes	Use `git-cli-agentic` for read-only branch/stash queries without mutating state
Verifying repo integrity with `git fsck`	Use `git-security-checks` for secret scanning rather than object integrity
Cleaning up a checkout before a long-lived feature branch goes stale	Use `git-rebase-patterns` to clean up commit history rather than the object store

Context

Current branch: !git branch --show-current
Git status: !git status --porcelain=v2 --branch
Local branches: !git branch -vv --format='%(refname:short) %(upstream:short) %(upstream:track)'
Stash list: !git stash list
Repository size: !du -sh .git

Parameters

Parse these parameters from the command (all optional):

--prune: Remove unreachable objects and run an incremental geometric repack
--gc: Force a full git gc consolidation (only when a repo has degraded badly — prefer the incremental repack)
--background: Register the repo for hourly background maintenance (git maintenance start) instead of a blocking one-shot pass
--verify: Verify integrity of git objects
--branches: Clean up merged branches only
--stash: Clean up stashes only
--all: Run all maintenance tasks (default if no flags specified)

Your task

Perform repository maintenance and cleanup based on the flags provided.

Step 1: Check for accidentally committed files

Environment files, IDE files, dependencies, build artifacts, secrets
Suggest adding to .gitignore and removing with git rm --cached

Step 2: Update .gitignore

Suggest common patterns if missing
Offer to append missing patterns

Step 3: Delete merged branches (if --branches or --all)

List and clean branches merged via GitHub PR
Protect main, master, develop, staging, production
Delete local branches safely with git branch -d
Require user confirmation before deleting branches

Step 4: Clean up redundant stashes (if --stash or --all)

Show stash ages and context
Suggest cleanup for old stashes (>30 days)
Drop stashes from deleted branches
Require user confirmation before dropping stashes

Step 5: Repository optimization (if --prune, --gc, --background, or --all)

Prefer incremental maintenance over gc --aggressive. Modern Git (2.31+) replaced the blocking, rewrite-everything git gc --aggressive pass with git maintenance and geometric repacking, which organizes packfiles in logarithmic layers by object count. Geometric repacking is the default for manual maintenance in recent Git (2.52+) and avoids the destructive, time-consuming "all-in-one" repack. Default to it.

# Incremental geometric repack — logarithmic pack layering + on-disk
# multi-pack index; far cheaper than `gc --aggressive`, safe to run often
git repack --geometric=2 -d --write-midx

# Prune unreachable objects older than the default grace window
git prune --expire=2.weeks.ago

# Show size improvement
du -sh .git

For hands-off upkeep (--background), register the repo so Git quietly pre-fetches, optimizes the commit-graph, and repacks loose objects on a schedule instead of blocking on a manual pass:

# Register hourly background maintenance (one-time, per repo)
git maintenance start

# Or run the standard task set once, on demand (non-blocking, incremental)
git maintenance run --task=commit-graph --task=incremental-repack --task=loose-objects

Reserve a full git gc for a repo that has genuinely degraded (only with --gc); skip --aggressive unless a one-off deep repack is explicitly needed:

# Full consolidation — only when --gc is requested and the repo is degraded
git gc

Step 6: Verify repository integrity (if --verify or --all)

git fsck --full --strict

Report any issues found.

Step 7: Final summary

Report all actions taken
Show before/after metrics

Safe Operations

These operations are safe and non-destructive:

git repack --geometric=2 -d --write-midx - Incremental geometric repack (preferred)
git maintenance run / git maintenance start - Incremental background upkeep
git gc - Full garbage collection (reserve for degraded repos)
git prune - Prune unreachable objects
git fsck - Verify integrity

These require user confirmation:

git branch -d - Delete branches
git stash drop - Drop stashes

Agentic Optimizations

Context	Command
Routine optimize	`git repack --geometric=2 -d --write-midx`
Hands-off upkeep	`git maintenance start`
One-shot incremental pass	`git maintenance run --task=incremental-repack --task=commit-graph`
Integrity check	`git fsck --full --strict`
Size before/after	`du -sh .git`

git-maintain