Check What Branches Contain A Specific Commit

July 19, 2026 · View on GitHub

The git branch command comes with a --contains flag that can tell me what local branches contain a specific commit based on the SHA of that commit.

❯ git branch --contains a73d9173c2399069fa202fe65da0a8927814fd84
* main
  jb/migrate-to-basedpyright
  jb/migrate-date-files-to-repository-pattern

I am currently on the main branch which is why it shows the * next to that one. This SHA also appears on those other two branches.

This command could be useful in a variety of situations.

  1. If I'm looking at a commit on a branch and I cannot remember if it has been integrated upstream yet. This check could tell me (unless commit squashing happens).
  2. If I'm on main, as I was above, and I am trying to remember what branch introduced a commit, this can help with that sleuthing. This assumes I don't delete branches.
  3. Maybe I've just run a git bisect to track down a bad commit and I want to see what are all the local branches that are impacted.

See man git-branch for more details.