If you would like to contribute to the addition of branches, that would be great. :)
For instance, this is my git dotfile doing that to display branches for a cherry-pick alias:
https://github.com/jakub-g/dotfiles/blob/master/git.profile#...
(_gitbranches() is defined at the beginning)
For example, the gg s command presents you with an easy to look at a quick glance status of your repository. In addition, there are aesthetic changes that increase the intuitiveness of Git itself.
Here's a screenshot of the gg s command in action: http://i.imgur.com/qXSPuv4.jpg.
Yes, node/npm are required, but most of the servers I work with these days already have those for other tools.
EDIT: Scratch that. I just saw that git-config supports include directives. The infrastructure is already done for me. Now I just need to separate that bit of code out of the main dotfile repository.
I guess what I was getting at here is that I haven't come across a good analog to npm for shell scripts or dotfiles "modules". Using node/ruby/py/etc instead of shell scripts is often overkill (debatable for gitgoodies), but having the standardized infrastructure is valuable.