git-branch-tree

git-branch-tree

Shows the parent-child relationships between git branches as a printed tree. Branches that share commit history are nested under their common ancestor; branches with no identifiable parent appear at the root.

Disclaimer: This is a personal project. The views, code, and opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent those of my current or past employers.

Installation

go install github.com/glennhartmann/git-branch-tree@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/glennhartmann/git-branch-tree
cd git-branch-tree
go build -o git-branch-tree .

Quick start

Run inside any git repository:

$ git-branch-tree

The current branch is highlighted in green. Example output:

├─ main
│  ├─ feature
│  │  └─ fix
│  └─ release
└─ hotfix

Modes

Two modes control how the tree is built, selected with -m:

history (default) — infers parent-child relationships from commit history. A branch is a child of the branch whose tip commit appears in its history at the point the two histories diverge. Works with no upstream configuration.

upstream — uses the tracking upstream set on each branch (git branch --set-upstream-to). More explicit and predictable when upstreams are configured.

$ git-branch-tree -m upstream

├─ origin/main
│  ├─ origin/feature
│  │  └─ feature
│  │     └─ fix
│  └─ origin/release
│     └─ release
└─ origin/hotfix
   └─ hotfix

Node collapsing

When two or more branches point to the same commit, --collapse-nodes (on by default) merges them into a single node. Their names are joined by --branch-separator (default :).

$ git-branch-tree               $ git-branch-tree -c=false

├─ main                         ├─ main
│  └─ feature:release           │  ├─ feature
└─ hotfix                       │  └─ release
                                └─ hotfix

Highlighting

The current branch is coloured green by default (-b). Use -o to colour additional branches blue; the flag is repeatable.

$ git-branch-tree -o feature -o hotfix

Note: the tree-drawer renderer does not support colour.

Flags

Renderers

Six renderers are available via -r:

ppds-horizontal-newline (default)

├─ main
│  ├─ feature
│  │  └─ fix
│  └─ release
└─ hotfix

ppds-horizontal

 ┬─ main ─┬─ feature ── fix
 │         └─ release
 └─ hotfix

ppds-vertical

├──────────────────┐
main               hotfix
├──────────┐
feature    release
│
fix

tree-print

├── main
│   ├── feature
│   │   └── fix
│   └── release
└── hotfix

go-tree

└── main
│   ├── feature
│   │   └── fix
│   └── release
└── hotfix

tree-drawer (no colour support)

                        ╭─╮
                        │ │
                        ╰┬╯
              ╭──────────┴──╮
          ╭───┴──╮       ╭──┴────╮
          │ main │       │hotfix │
          ╰───┬──╯       ╰───────╯
         ╭────┴────╮
    ╭────┴───╮  ╭──┴────╮
    │feature │  │release│
    ╰────┬───╯  ╰───────╯
         │
    ╭────┴──╮
    │  fix  │
    ╰───────╯