Instead of scrolling through a long list of git branches, you can create a shell alias that displays them in a clean, formatted table with useful information like commit date and author.

Here’s the alias:

alias gb='git --no-pager branch --sort=committerdate --format="%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%09%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%09%(color:red)[%(authorname)]" --color=always | column -t -s$'\t''

Add this to your ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or equivalent shell configuration file.

What it does:

• Lists all git branches sorted by most recent commit date
• Displays three color-coded columns:
  • Branch name (yellow)
  • Relative commit date (green)
  • Author name (red)
• Uses column to align everything into neat, tab-separated columns

Instead of a simple list, you’ll see a formatted table showing when each branch was last updated and who worked on it - perfect for quickly identifying stale branches or finding recent work.

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