# rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner

Removes large or troublesome blobs like git-filter-branch does, but faster. And written in Scala

Repository: https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bfg-repo-cleaner
Homepage: https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/
Language: Scala
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: git
Last push: 2025-01-19T18:52:14+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 24/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 2, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5004, "days_push": 591, "days_rel": 592, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 12175, forks 584 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:51.928174+00:00)

## What it is
BFG Repo-Cleaner is a command-line tool for removing large files, passwords, credentials, and other unwanted data from Git repository history. It is a simpler and much faster alternative to git-filter-branch, written in Scala and run on the JVM.

## Use cases
- remove large files from git history
- strip passwords and credentials from a git repository
- cleanse private data out of git commits
- shrink a bloated git repository
- replace sensitive text across all git history
- alternative to git-filter-branch for history rewriting

## When to choose
- you need to delete big blobs or secrets from an entire Git repo's history quickly
- you want a simple, focused alternative to git-filter-branch
- you have a large repository where filter-branch is too slow

## When to avoid
- you need highly custom, arbitrary history rewriting beyond blob removal and text replacement
- you only want to remove files from future commits without touching history
- you cannot run Java on your machine

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: developer-tools, version-control, security
- domain: developer-tools, version-control, security
- platform: cli, jvm, cross-platform
- tags: git, git-history-rewriting, repo-cleaning, secrets-removal, scala, java

## Member repositories
- rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner (main) score 24

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:51.928174+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:14:52.511462+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:51.928174+00:00, sha 8c0a3576bf7b)
  - homepage: https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:11:57.422187+00:00, sha e0d226374ce1)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.