Find and Switch to a Branch by Partial Name

When to use

You remember part of a branch name (for example, feat/mu) but need a quick way to locate it and resume work.

Pre-flight

• Your repository already has the branch in question locally or on a remote such as origin.
• You have permission to fetch from the remote so the branch list is current.

Steps

1. Refresh branch information so you do not miss recently pushed work.

   git fetch --all --prune

2. Search for branches whose names include your fragment. Wildcards let you match patterns such as *feat/mu*.

   git branch --all --list '*feat/mu*'

3. Switch to the branch once you spot the exact name.

   # Branch already exists locally
   git switch feat/mu
   
   # Branch only on the remote (creates local tracking branch)
   git switch --track origin/feat/mu

Verification

• git status reports "On branch feat/mu" and shows the working tree state.
• git branch --show-current echoes feat/mu.

Follow-up

• Run git pull to grab any commits pushed after you last worked on the branch.
• Use git switch - later if you need to hop back to the previous branch quickly.

Concept refresher

Need a deeper comparison of git switch, git checkout, and git restore? Read Choose Between git switch, git checkout, and git restore.