git branch, but make it better 🔧

Download for macOS (Apple Silicon) · Linux (x64) · Windows (x64)

🌿 What is B-branch?

You've been staring at git branch output for years, an alphabetical wall of names with zero context. When was this branch last touched? How far behind is it? What was I even doing here?

B-branch fixes that.

It replaces the blunt git branch command with a rich, structured view that shows you what actually matters: recency, divergence, and description.

🔧 Usage

git bb [<options>] [<additional arguments>]

Overview

git bb behaves similarly to git branch, but provides additional capabilities for filtering, sorting, and analyzing branches.

Generic Options

Filtering Options

Examples

# List all branches
git bb

# Only remote branches
git bb --remote

# Find branches containing "feature"
git bb --contains feature

# Sort by latest updates
git bb --sort date

# Top 5 ahead branches
git bb --sort ahead --print-top 5

📝 Branch Description

Git supports per-branch description natively... B-branch actually shows them.

# Add a description to the current branch
git branch --edit-description

This will open an editor where you can set descriptions for your branches.

[main]
This is the description that will show up on the main branch.

[development]
This development branch is for incoming work.

🖥️ Pager Keybindings

💡 Nerd Font

For the full icon experience, install Nerd Font and enable it

git config --global vars.useNerdFonts true

Download

Look through releases on the Release page or download the latest version below!

curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SimonNyvall/b-branch/main/install.sh | sh

Manual Install

Pre-Installation Cleanup 🧹

Before reinstalling B-branch, follow these steps to remove previous configurations.

1. Delete the bin directory:
   • Windows: Delete the b-branch folder from C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\bin\
   • Unix: Run the following command:

   sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/b-branch

2. Remove Git Alias:
   • Open the git config file (~/.gitconfig or %USERPROFILE%\.gitconfig)
   • Delete the lines for the bb alias

Manual Install

1. Download the binary for your system.
2. Unzip the file:

   unzip b-branch-<arch>.zip

3. Move the directory to your bin.

Note: <arch> refers to the architecture of the downloaded binary.

Windows 🪟

Note: Replace <user> with your username.

• Move the folder:

  move "C:\b-branch-<arch>" "C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\bin\b-branch"

• Link to Git:

  git config --global alias.bb '!f() { /c/Users/<user>/AppData/Local/B-branch/CLI.exe "$@"; }; f'

Unix 🐧 🍎

• Move the directory:

  sudo mv b-branch-<arch> /usr/local/bin/b-branch

• Link to Git:

  git config --global alias.bb '!bash -c '\''"'/usr/local/bin/b-branch/CLI'" "$@"'\'' bash'

Notes

Designed as a drop-in enhancement for developers working with many branches.

Pager: B-branch uses less as its pager. The first argument passed to B-branch is expected to be the path to the less executable. The install script configures this automatically, but manual installs require less to be available in your PATH or explicitly provided.

Filtering: The --contains and --no-contains options first attempt to interpret input as a regular expression. If parsing fails, B-branch falls back to a simple substring match using .NET's string matching.

Sorting: Sorting by ahead or behind depends on upstream tracking information. Branches without an upstream may appear last or be omitted depending on context.

Upstream: Ahead/behind information requires an upstream branch. If none is set, those values will not be shown.

Detached HEAD: When in a detached HEAD state, B-branch may not associate the current state with a branch.

Remote branches: Remote branches are only included when using --all or --remote. Their metadata depends on your local fetch state.

Performance: Performance depends on repository size and number of branches. Large repositories or many remotes may take slightly longer to analyze.