How to Use This Tool
Size owner checks and deletion decisions before automating repository cleanup. Repositories collect abandoned branches, but bulk deletion is risky when nobody has checked unmerged work, deployments or owners.
Why Branch Cleanup needs more than a raw total
Candidate count multiplied by review time exposes the human verification cost before enabling automatic age-based deletion. For this page, the useful comparison is branch review workload, not whichever input happens to be largest. The Branch Cleanup result answers the decision in the heading and should not be reused as a score for a different workflow.
The exact Branch Cleanup formula
Review workload hours equal stale branch candidates multiplied by minutes per branch, divided by 60. The visible fields are Stale branch candidates and Average review time. For Branch Cleanup, read each printed unit before entry and make the values describe one transaction, cohort or reporting window. If those scopes differ, the displayed branch review workload may be arithmetically valid but operationally meaningless.
Interpreting branch review workload
Exclude protected and active release branches, contact owners for ambiguous work and document a retention rule for future cleanup. The ten-percent comparison is deliberately narrow: it tests the influence of stale branch candidates and is neither a forecast nor a confidence interval. Preserve the values used, their dates and the resulting decision so a later reviewer can reproduce why Branch Cleanup supported the choice.
What this Branch Cleanup model leaves out
This does not inspect Git history or determine safe deletion; it excludes branch recovery, forks, deployment references and legal retention. That is where Branch Cleanup stops being trustworthy. If an excluded factor could reverse branch review workload, extend the model explicitly or use the authoritative account system instead of hiding the factor inside an unexplained adjustment.
Evidence and independent verification
The reference reviewed for Branch Cleanup is GitHub Docs — Managing branches. GitHub Docs — Managing branches supports the named definition or rule but does not supply private values for branch review workload. Before acting on the result, reconcile the worked example with the relevant dashboard, invoice, export or measurement.
Private, reproducible calculation
Branch Cleanup runs its arithmetic in the current browser tab and requests no login or API key. That keeps the Branch Cleanup inputs away from the site's calculation server, while leaving the user responsible for detecting stale data or a changed platform rule. When an assumption changes, reopen GitHub Docs — Managing branches and rerun the saved Branch Cleanup scenario.
Sources & assumptions
Tool Spec v2 · verified 2026-08-22. Platform rules and fees can change; the editable inputs remain authoritative for your account.
Official references
- GitHub Docs — Managing branches (checked 2026-08-22)
Model assumptions
- Every input covers the same reporting period or cohort.
- This does not inspect Git history or determine safe deletion; it excludes branch recovery, forks, deployment references and legal retention.
- The calculator uses only the visible fields and does not fetch account data.
