Git Branch Strategies

Main branches
main // Production-ready code
develop // Integration branch

Supporting branches
feature/* // New features
release/* // Release preparation
hotfix/* // Quick production fixes

Create feature branch
git checkout develop
git checkout -b feature/new-feature

Finish feature
git checkout develop
git merge --no-ff feature/new-feature
git branch -d feature/new-feature

Create release branch
git checkout develop
git checkout -b release/1.2.0

Simple workflow
1. Create branch from main
2. Add commits
3. Open Pull Request
4. Review and discuss
5. Deploy and test
6. Merge to main

Create feature branch
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout -b feature-name

Push and create PR
git push -u origin feature-name
Then create PR on GitHub

After merge, cleanup
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git branch -d feature-name

Key principles
• All developers work on trunk (main)
• Short-lived feature branches (< 1 day)
• Frequent integration (multiple times per day)
• Feature flags for incomplete work
• CI/CD pipeline required

Quick feature workflow
git checkout main
git pull --rebase
git checkout -b short-feature
// Make small changes
git commit -am "feat: add feature"
git checkout main
git merge short-feature
git push

Release branches
git checkout -b release/v1.0 main
// Only bug fixes on release branch

Feature branches
feature/user-authentication
feature/add-payment-gateway
feat/search-functionality

Bug fix branches
bugfix/fix-login-error
fix/correct-calculation
bug/header-alignment

Hotfix branches
hotfix/critical-security-patch
hotfix/production-crash

Release branches
release/1.0.0
release/v2.1

Other types
docs/update-readme
refactor/cleanup-code
test/add-unit-tests
chore/update-dependencies