---
title: Extending Git with a Custom Command
description: It's possible to execute complicated repository tasks by extending Git with a custom command, for instance adding a command to delete all merged branches.
---
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Products & Services
Use Cases
Industries
Connectors
[Blog](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/)
[FREE 30 Minute Demo](https://www.dreamfactory.com/demo)
[AI Data Gateway](https://www.dreamfactory.com/ai-data-gateway/overview)
[Overview Why DreamFactory exists](https://www.dreamfactory.com/ai-data-gateway/overview) [Data Gov, Comp, Security Policy enforcement at the API layer](https://www.dreamfactory.com/ai-data-gateway/ai-data-governance) [Standard API Layer One contract for every backend](https://www.dreamfactory.com/ai-data-gateway/standard-api-layer) [API Gateway Functionality Routing, auth, rate limits, observability](https://www.dreamfactory.com/ai-data-gateway/api-gateway-functionality) [Deployment & Integration Self-hosted, cloud, hybrid](https://www.dreamfactory.com/ai-data-gateway/on-premise-deployment-and-integration) [Developer Productivity Auto-generated, never hand-coded](https://www.dreamfactory.com/ai-data-gateway/ai-development-accelerated) [AI App Architectures Patterns for RAG, agents, MCP](https://www.dreamfactory.com/ai-data-gateway/enterprise-ai-architectures)
AI Data Models
[AIOpenAI](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/openai) [GGoogle Gemini](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/google-gemini) [CAnthropic Claude](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/anthropic-claude-landing) [LMeta Llama](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/meta-llama) [MMistral AI](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/mistral) [CoCohere](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/cohere)
Services and support
[Quickstart Service Packages Expert-led Quickstarts to production](https://www.dreamfactory.com/services-and-support/quickstart-services-packages)
AI Data Models
[Generate & Manage REST APIs From any database, in seconds](https://www.dreamfactory.com/api-management/generate-rest-apis) [Features Security, scripting, self-hosted & more](https://www.dreamfactory.com/api-management/features) [API Generation The complete guide to auto-generated APIs](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/a-complete-guide-to-api-generation) [API Management Concepts, tools, and best practises](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/what-is-api-management-a-brief-overview-of-api-management-concepts-and-tools?_gl=1*jl0njh*_gcl_au*MjQzMjgwMTc3LjE3ODIzMjI3MzY)
AI Use Cases
[AI Data Access Secure, governed reads for your LLMs](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/ai-data-access) [MCP Server Drop-in Model Context Protocol](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/mcp-server) [Legacy Modernization Wrap mainframes with REST](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/legacy-modernization) [Data Governance Audit every call, enforce every policy](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/data-governance)
[Customer Case Studies](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies)
[Energy Modernization](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies/energy-snowflake-modernization) [Government Modernization](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies/government-mainframe-oracle-modernization) [Government Business Intelligence](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies/government-sql-server-bi-analyst-queries) [Manufacturing Modernization](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies/steel-manufacturing-sap-erp-modernization) [Financial Services Investor Portal](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies/financial-services-sql-server-investor-portal) [Non-Profit Partner Data Sharing](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies/non-profit-sql-server-partner-data-sharing) [Professional Services Exec Dashboards](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies/professional-services-erp-dashboards) [Education HR and External Data Sharing](https://www.dreamfactory.com/case-studies/education-student-hr-sql-server-mysql-external-data-sharing)
Industries
#### [Healthcare HIPAA-grade APIs across EHR, claims, and labs.](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/healthcare)
#### [Financial Services Portfolios, partners, and portals on one layer.](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/financial-services)
#### [Government Modernize mainframes without re-platforming.](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/government)
#### [Manufacturing SAP, MES, and shop-floor data, governed.](https://www.dreamfactory.com/use-cases/manufacturing)
SQL Database
[SQL SQL Server](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/sql-server) [OR Oracle](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/oracle) [PG PostgreSQL](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/postgresql) [My MySQL](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/mysql)
NoSQL & Docs
[Dy DynamoDB](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/dynamodb) [Do DocumentDB](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/azure-documentdb) [Mo MongoDB](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/mongodb) [Cb CouchDB](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/couch-db)
Cloud Warehouses
[S3 S3](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/amazon-s3) [Ab Azureblob](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/azure-blob) [FS FTP/SFTP](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/ftp-sftp) [LS Local Storage](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/local-storage)
C & SaaS
[Sf Salesforce](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/salesforce) [API REST / SOAP](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors/soap-to-rest)
[See all 30+ connectors](https://www.dreamfactory.com/connectors)
[ Blog](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/)
# Extending Git with a Custom Command
by Jason Gilmore
 January 2, 2026
Table of contents
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
- [A Complete Guide to API Generation](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/a-complete-guide-to-api-generation)
- [10 Best API Management Tools](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/what-is-api-management-a-brief-overview-of-api-management-concepts-and-tools)
- [Creating a Microsoft SQL Server API in Less Than 5 minutes with DreamFactory](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/creating-a-microsoft-sql-server-api-in-less-than-5-minutes-with-dreamfactory)
- [Hasura vs. DreamFactory: A Comprehensive Comparison](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/hasura-vs-dreamfactory)
- [Build A Snowflake REST API in Less Than 5 Minutes](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/generate-a-snowflake-rest-api-in-less-than-5-minutes)
The DreamFactory development team leans heavily upon Git and GitHub for repository management. Whether it's [DreamFactory Genie](https://genie.dreamfactory.com/register), the [DreamFactory website](https://www.dreamfactory.com/), the [Getting Started with DreamFactory guide](https://guide.dreamfactory.com), or the [platform itself](https://github.com/dreamfactorysoftware/dreamfactory), you can guarantee the code is managed within a repository. Apparently my own Git usage is such that it dominates my terminal command history, accounting for 32.689% of all commands executed (per the command [zsh\_stats](https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/wiki/Cheatsheet) )! Yet no matter how deep your Git expertise may be, eventually you'll have to combine commands with shell syntax in order to achieve more complicated tasks. One such example is deleting all locally merged branches. In this tutorial you'll learn how to do so by extending Git with a custom command.
## Viewing Merged Branches
When working on a repository over a long period of time, it's easy for a number of previously merged local branches to accumulate. You can view this list by running the following command within one of your own repositories:
```
$ git branch --merged
accept-tos
master
new-registration-form
webhook-fix
```
## Deleting a Merged Branch
You can delete one of these branches using the following command:
```
$ git branch -d webhook-fix
```
But what if you wanted to delete *all* of the merged branches at once? According to [this Stack Overflow post](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6127328/how-can-i-delete-all-git-branches-which-have-been-merged), it is possible but requires a bit of script-fu:
```
$ git branch --merged | egrep -v "(^*|master|dev)" | xargs git branch -d
```
Note the piped egrep command is ensuring the `master` and `dev` branches are filtered out of the results before they are passed to `git branch -d`. Therefore should you want to forego deleting other branches in addition to `master` and `dev`, you'll want to add them to the filter list.
## Creating a Git Alias
Indeed, this command works perfectly, exactly as desired. But I'm never going to remember it. For such lengthy commands, it's commonplace to add them as aliases to your shell configuration file (`~/.bashrc` for Bash users, `~/.zshrc` for Z shell users):
```
alias git-delete-merged="git branch --merged | egrep -v "(^*|master|dev)" | xargs git branch -d"
```
After adding this alias, you can reload the configuration file using the source command:
```
$ source ~/.zshrc
```
## Extending Git with a Custom Command
While I guess this is a satisfactory improvement, it left me wanting. What about extending Git to include a `delete-merged` command? This way we could delete local merged branches using the following command:
```
$ git delete-merged
```
Yes! It turns out this is far easier than anticipated. Git will automatically extend itself with any executable shell script placed on the system path and assigned a name with a git- prefix. Therefore to add the above `delete-merged` command, all your have to do is add the following shell script to your path:
```
#!/bin/zsh
set -e
git branch --merged| egrep -v "(^*|master)" | xargs git branch -d
```
With the script done, save it with the file name git-delete-merged and then make sure it is executable:
```
$ chmod u+x git-delete-merged
```
Next, navigate to one of the project repositories and confirm it is visible on your path:
```
$ which git-delete-merged
/Users/wjgilmore/bin/git-delete-merged
```
With the new extension in place, I'm able to delete all local merged branches with the desired command:
```
$ git delete-merged
Deleted branch accept-tos (was a4798c4)
Deleted branch new-registration-form (was c38787b8)
Deleted webhook-fix (was d65433a3)
```
Thanks to this capability, the sky really is the limit in terms of how you can extend Git to do your bidding!
TAGS: [Uncategorized](https://blog.dreamfactory.com/tag/uncategorized)
Jason Gilmore
Jason is the author of almost a dozen books on web development, including most recently Easy Laravel 5, and Beginning PHP and MySQL, 4th Edition. He's the co-founder of the CodeMash Conference, one of the largest software conferences in the Midwestern United States. Jason serves as a technical advisor to the boards of several technology startups. His free time is spent playing with his kids and reading.
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