wt remove

Remove worktree; delete branch if merged. Defaults to the current worktree.

Examples

Remove current worktree:

wt remove

Remove specific worktrees / branches:

wt remove feature-branch
wt remove old-feature another-branch

Keep the branch:

wt remove --no-delete-branch feature-branch

Force-delete an unmerged branch:

wt remove -D experimental

Branch cleanup

By default, branches are deleted when they would add no changes to the default branch if merged. This works with both unchanged git histories, and squash-merge or rebase workflows where commit history differs but file changes match.

Worktrunk checks six conditions (in order of cost):

1. Same commit — Branch HEAD equals the default branch. Shows _ in wt list.
2. Ancestor — Branch is in target's history (fast-forward or rebase case). Shows ⊂.
3. No added changes — Three-dot diff (target...branch) is empty. Shows ⊂.
4. Trees match — Branch tree SHA equals target tree SHA. Shows ⊂.
5. Merge adds nothing — Simulated merge produces the same tree as target. Handles squash-merged branches where target has advanced with changes to different files. Shows ⊂.
6. Patch-id match — Branch's entire diff matches a single squash-merge commit on target. Fallback for when the simulated merge conflicts because target later modified the same files the branch touched. Shows ⊂.

The 'same commit' check uses the local default branch; for other checks, 'target' means the default branch, or its upstream (e.g., origin/main) when strictly ahead.

Branches matching these conditions and with empty working trees are dimmed in wt list as safe to delete.

Force flags

Worktrunk has two force flags for different situations:

wt remove feature --force       # Remove worktree with untracked files
wt remove feature -D            # Delete unmerged branch
wt remove feature --force -D    # Both

Without --force, removal fails if the worktree contains untracked files. Without --force-delete, removal keeps branches with unmerged changes. Use --no-delete-branch to keep the branch regardless of merge status.

Background removal

Removal runs in the background by default — the command returns immediately. The worktree is renamed into .git/wt/trash/ (instant same-filesystem rename), git metadata is pruned, the branch is deleted, and a detached rm -rf finishes cleanup. Cross-filesystem worktrees fall back to git worktree remove. Logs: .git/wt/logs/{branch}/internal/remove.log. Use --foreground to run in the foreground.

After each wt remove, entries in .git/wt/trash/ older than 24 hours are swept by a detached rm -rf — eventual cleanup for directories orphaned when a previous background removal was interrupted (SIGKILL, reboot, disk full).

Hooks

pre-remove hooks run before the worktree is deleted (with access to worktree files). post-remove hooks run after removal. See wt hook for configuration.

Detached HEAD worktrees

Detached worktrees have no branch name. Pass the worktree path instead: wt remove /path/to/worktree.

See also

• wt merge — Remove worktree after merging
• wt list — View all worktrees

Command reference

wt remove - Remove worktree; delete branch if merged

Defaults to the current worktree.

Usage: wt remove [OPTIONS] [BRANCHES]...

Arguments:
  [BRANCHES]...
          Branch name [default: current]

Options:
      --no-delete-branch
          Keep branch after removal

  -D, --force-delete
          Delete unmerged branches

      --foreground
          Run removal in foreground (block until complete)

  -f, --force
          Force worktree removal

          Remove worktrees even if they contain untracked files (like build artifacts). Without this
          flag, removal fails if untracked files exist.

  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

Automation:
      --no-hooks
          Skip hooks

      --format <FORMAT>
          Output format

          JSON prints structured result to stdout after removal completes.

          Possible values:
          - text: Human-readable text output
          - json: JSON output

          [default: text]

Global Options:
  -C <path>
          Working directory for this command

      --config <path>
          User config file path

  -v, --verbose...
          Verbose output (-v: info logs + hook/alias template variable & output; -vv: debug logs +
          diagnostic report + trace.log/output.log under .git/wt/logs/)

  -y, --yes
          Skip approval prompts