Report and clean up stale GitHub branches with Slack notifications

by Adriaan van Niekerk ✓ · 14 views · created 2026-06-09 · DevOps

What this workflow does

This workflow has 14 nodes and runs on a schedule (every week) (plus 1 other trigger). Along the way it connects Slack. It also calls api.github.com over HTTP.

How it runs

Trigger: On a schedule (every week) (plus 1 other trigger).

1. Configuration (Edit Fields (Set)): sets 7 fields: repoOwner, scanRepos, staleDays…
2. Expand Repo List (Code): runs custom JavaScript code
3. Fetch All Branches (HTTP Request): calls api.github.com (POST)
4. Fetch Recently Merged PRs (HTTP Request): calls an HTTP API
5. Classify Branches — Merged vs Stale (Code): runs custom JavaScript code
6. Auto-Delete Enabled? (If): checks a condition and branches into true / false
7. Split Branches for Deletion (Code): runs custom JavaScript code
8. Format Cleanup Report (Code): runs custom JavaScript code
9. Delete Single Branch (HTTP Request): calls an HTTP API (DELETE)
10. Send Report to Slack (Slack): uses Slack

…plus 2 more steps. See the full node list below.

Services it uses

Slack

HTTP calls to: api.github.com

Before you upgrade to n8n 3.0

Nodes used (7)

• Schedule Triggern8n-nodes-base.scheduleTrigger
• Edit Fields (Set)n8n-nodes-base.set
• Coden8n-nodes-base.code
• HTTP Requestn8n-nodes-base.httpRequest
• Slackn8n-nodes-base.slack
• Ifn8n-nodes-base.if
• Manual Triggern8n-nodes-base.manualTrigger

From the author

Quick Overview This workflow runs weekly (or manually) to scan GitHub repositories for merged-but-not-deleted and stale branches, then posts a cleanup report to Slack and can optionally auto-delete a capped number of branches. How it works 1. Runs on a weekly…

View the original on n8n.io → Check your own copy