Become a Git Branch *Curator*: From Simple Lists to Provenance Archaeology

Become a Git Branch Curator: From Simple Lists to Provenance Archaeology

“A commit is a brush-stroke; a branch is the canvas where it lives.”

Whether you just want to peek at the branches cluttering your repo or you need museum‑grade provenance for an enterprise audit, this post is your four‑level branch‑discovery palette. Start with the Basic swatch or blend all tiers to wield Git like a true version‑control artist‑scientist.

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🟢 1 · BASIC — “Where are my canvases?”

Goal	One‑liner	Shows
List local branches	git branch	Names under .git/refs/heads/
Add last‑commit info	git branch -v	Branch + commit hash + subject
Include remotes	git branch -a	Adds .git/refs/remotes/*

Quick touch‑up: git branch -vv also displays each branch’s upstream.

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🟡 2 · MEDIUM — “Which ones did I paint?”

Git lacks an explicit “branch creator,” but the root commit (first commit on the branch) holds the author’s signature.

# List local branches whose root commit author == you
git for-each-ref   --format='%(authorname): %(refname:short)'   --sort=creatordate refs/heads/ | grep -i "$(git config user.name)"

Palette breakdown

• for-each-ref — walks every ref
• %(authorname) — root commit’s author
• %(refname:short) — nice branch name
• grep — filters to your user.name

Remote branches? Repeat with refs/remotes/ once you’ve pushed with git push -u.

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🔵 3 · ADVANCED — “Time‑lapse of creation events”

Every git checkout -b new-branch writes a line to the reflog. Mine that log for a definitive creation diary:

git reflog show --all --date=short   | grep 'branch: Created'   | awk '{print $1, $6}'   | sort -u

Piece	Purpose
--all	Walks every reflog (HEAD + branches)
branch: Created	Pattern Git logs on branch birth
awk '{print $1, $6}'	Prints <date> <branch>
sort -u	De‑dupes the list

Make it permanent

git config --global alias.br-born "reflog show --all --date=short |  grep 'branch: Created' |  awk '{print \$1, \$6}' | sort -u"

Now git br-born gives you a one-command scrapbook.

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🟣 4 · EXPERT — “Gallery‑grade provenance”

1. Cross‑reference author, reflog and PR metadata

#!/usr/bin/env bash
me="$(git config user.email)"

git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short)' refs/heads/ |
while read br; do
  first=$(git log --reverse --pretty='%h|%an|%ae|%ad|%s' "$br" | head -1)
  IFS='|' read h an ae ad msg <<<"$first"
  if [[ "$ae" == "$me" ]]; then
    printf '%-20s  %s  %s  %s\n' "$br" "$ad" "$an" "$msg"
  fi
done

Outputs: branch | date-created | your‑name | initial‑commit‑msg

2. Hosting‑platform archaeology

# GitHub example (requires GitHub CLI)
gh repo view owner/repo --json pullRequests   --jq '.pullRequests.nodes[].headRefName'

3. Raw‑object spelunking

Use git cat-file --batch to stream commit objects, count parents, and identify orphan roots (branch starts) authored by you—perfect for massive mono‑repos.

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“Curator” — one alias to rule them all

git curator() {
  git br-born ||   git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short)' refs/heads/
}

Add to .bashrc/.zshrc. If reflog analysis is unavailable, it falls back to a simple list.

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Key takeaways (hang these in your gallery)

1. Basic → Surface everything that exists.
2. Medium → Attribute the artist.
3. Advanced → Timestamp the moment of creation.
4. Expert → Automate & cross‑verify for audit‑proof provenance.

✍️ Written by: Cristian Sifuentes – Full-stack dev crafting scalable apps with [NET - Azure], [Angular - React], Git, SQL & extensions. Clean code, dark themes, atomic commits

Master this four‑tier palette and you’ll treat branches like pigments—catalogued, timestamped, and signed—ready for any Git exhibition.

Happy version‑painting! 🖌️