This is a simple tool to replace the usual git branch printout provided by Git.

When developing on branches that use ticket numbers, I find that it can sometimes be difficult to remember what exactly the branch was for. To help with this, I would add descriptions to the branches using git branch --edit-description, but Git does not provide an easy way for you to quickly look at all of the branches along with their descriptions. Instead, to get the description of a branch, you have to use a long command: git config --get branch.<branch_name>.description.

This tool provides an alternative to git branch that also displays branch descriptions (if available) and recent commits. I personally find that this makes it a lot easier to quickly scan over my local branches, so hopefully it can help others too.

If you use Homebrew, git-branches is available in my tap:

brew install cdevoogd/tap/git-branches

You can also install using go install:

go install github.com/cdevoogd/git-branches@latest

Adding descriptions to your branches when using this tool can make it much easier to quickly determine what you were working on on a branch. I recommend setting an alias in your .gitconfig to assist in quickly setting descriptions.

If you leave the name of this program as-is when installing, Git should automatically allow it to be used as a custom subcommand. If the program is named git-branches and is available in your PATH, you should be able to call it using git branches.