git.list_branches¶

git.list_branches lists the local branches of a git repository.

Request¶

{"path": "/repo"}

Parameter	Required	Meaning
`path`	no	A directory of the repository. A bare repository is accepted. Without `path`, the daemon answers for its own working directory. Path handling has the rules for a leading `~`.
`shadowDirOff`	no	`true` turns off the daemon's own read of the git config of the repository for this request, and its settings copy. Any other value does nothing and is no error. See Repository config refusals and The settings copy.

Response¶

{"isRepo": true, "branches": ["feature", "main"]}

Member	Meaning
`isRepo`	If the daemon accepts `path` as a repository, `true`.
`branches`	The short names of the local branches, in the byte order of the names.

Each response has both members. The list has the local branches only. It has no remote-tracking branch and no tag, and no member says which branch is checked out. A repository with no commit gives "isRepo": true and an empty list.

If the daemon finds no repository, the response is not an error:

{"isRepo": false, "branches": []}

"isRepo": false does not always mean that path holds no repository. The daemon gives this response in more cases than that. The main cases are these:

path is not inside a git repository.
path does not resolve. For example, it does not exist. That is not an error.
path is inside a directory of managed worktrees. That is a path under .claude/worktrees, or under a directory that holds the marker file .claude-managed-worktrees. So the worktree of a session gives "isRepo": false. Send the path of the base repository to list its branches. A baseRepo member inside such a directory gives the same response. With no baseRepo, the daemon makes that test on its own working directory too.
The daemon cannot find git on its PATH.
git itself does not accept the repository. For example, the repository belongs to another user and git has no safe.directory line for it.
Only with -git-timeout: the deadline stopped the git call that tests for a repository.

Errors¶

This method has no errorCode member. A failure is a JSON-RPC error.

Code	Text	Cause
`-32602`	`Invalid params`	The request has no `params` member, or `params` or a member of it has the wrong type. See the rules for `params`.
`-32603`	A refusal text	The daemon refuses to run git for `path`. Three examples follow. It does not trust the git directory or the git configuration. It refuses its own git environment. git is on the `PATH`, and `git version` fails. The texts are in Git-directory trust check, Hardened git calls and The daemon's own git environment.
`-32603`	`this repository's git config cannot be used: …` or `a file in this repository's .git directory cannot be used: …`	The daemon read the git configuration of the repository itself and does not accept it. For example, the format version of the repository is not `0` or `1`. The second text is for a file of the git directory. `"shadowDirOff": true` in the request turns that read off. The protocol reference has the texts.
`-32603`	`Claude could not test git on the remote machine (…). Check free disk space and quota there, then try again.`	The daemon tests once whether the git of the host works on its settings copy. That test failed. The daemon keeps the failure for 10 seconds. See The settings copy.
`-32603`	`git could not check this repository on the remote machine: …`, or `git and Claude disagree about which repository holds this folder: …`	Before its other git calls the daemon asks git about the repository. That call failed, did not end in 30 seconds, or named another repository.
`-32603`	`Claude could not prepare its own files on the remote machine: …`	The daemon cannot make the folder of its settings copy for this repository.
`-32603`	The Go error of the git call, for example `exit status 128`	git cannot list the branches. For example, the file `packed-refs` is corrupt.
`-32603`	`signal: killed`	Only with `-git-timeout`: the deadline stopped the git call that lists the branches. This is the text of Linux and macOS. If the deadline stops the first git call of the method, the text is a refusal text that ends in `signal: killed`.

A warning of git does not become a branch name. If git warns about a broken ref and still lists the other branches, the response holds those branches.

Differences by system¶

On Windows, a path with a junction before its last component does not resolve, so the response is "isRepo": false. On Windows, a path that exists and in which git cannot start, for example a regular file, gets a -32603 refusal. On Linux and macOS that path gives "isRepo": false.

Differences from the reference¶

claustrum is built to answer as the reference daemon does. The pinned build 89cb6289 has no settings copy, and it answers a request with a failed test normally. claustrum follows 5fd08069 there. These entries of the divergence catalog apply to this method:

D5: an optional deadline on the git calls. It is off by default.
D9: a member of another git.* method with the wrong type gets -32602, although this method does not use it.