Visual Studio Code - remove branches deleted on GitHub that still show in VS Code?

Question

In VSCode, after I do a pull request and delete the branch on GitHub, that branch still shows up in Visual Studio Code. If I select the branch, it gives an Error, as expected. <

Answer 1

All you need to do is to run this command:

git remote prune origin

Something extra that you can do, because it's annoying sometimes to open a terminal just for that.. you can add a task in vscode.

To do that please make follow these steps:

1. In VSCode View > Command Palette (cmd/ctrl + Shift + P)
2. type Configure Task
3. Select Create tasks.json file from template and a new file will be created under .vscode folder.
4. Inside tasks array add this:

{ "label": "Git Prune", "type": "shell", "command": "git remote prune origin", "problemMatcher": [] }

How to use it:

1. Open Command Palette
2. Type Run Task and select it
3. Select Git Prune

Reference:

1. Git prune

Answer 2

You can remove all the local branches (except master) with:

git branch -r | grep -v "master" | xargs git branch -D

And you can remove all the branches still appearing as origin/XXXX in VSCode but already deleted in origin with:

git fetch --prune

---

Note:

The first command above (taken from https://stackoverflow.com/a/52006270/3120163):

• list all the branches
• remove the master branch from the list
• delete the branches in the list

Answer 3

Open the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and select Git: Fetch (Prune).

This feature was merged into VS Code on Nov 20, 2018.

Answer 4

The shorter command is:

git fetch -p

Answer 5

Apparently, this feature is intentional. I found out that a correct way to remove all remote branches that have been deleted from Github is to run the following command.

git fetch --prune

Then restart visual studio to remove the branches from the command palette

Answer 6

You don't have to git fetch --prune and restart VSCode anymore.
With VSCode 1.52 (Nov. 2020), you now have:

Git: Prune on fetch

Enabling the git.pruneOnFetch setting will make VS Code run git fetch --prune when fetching remote refs.

No more extra branch locally once they have been deleted from GitHub.

See PR 89249, fixing issue 86813:

Usage:

{
   "git.pruneOnFetch": true
}

Setting is false by default.

This would add the --prune flag to all git fetches.