Real repos accumulate hundreds of branches. git branch alone is useless past a dozen.
Useful flags:
git branch — local only
git branch -a — local + remote
git branch -r — remote only
git branch -v — show last commit subject + hash
git branch -vv — also show upstream tracking
git branch --merged — branches whose tip has been merged into HEAD (safe to delete)
git branch --no-merged — branches with unmerged work
git branch --sort=-committerdate — newest first
git branch --contains <hash> — which branches include this commit?
Combine for prune-time triage:
git branch --merged main --sort=-committerdate
Branches starting with * are your current one.