Single Branch with Feature Branches

This workflow is a basic git workflow for a small team of more than 1 member.

This workflow can also be used as a solo developer if you want an extra layer before pushing to main

This workflow uses a single branch main, feature branches and pull requests.

Start your day

• Start on main
• Update your local main with the latest changes

git checkout main
git pull origin main

Create a feature branch

• Create a feature branch for your work

git checkout -b feature/my-branch

feature/my-branch is the name of your feature branch. It can be any valid file-like naming.

Examples of feature branch names:

• feature/login-form
• bugfix/fix-nav
• docs/update-readme
• chore/organize-files

Work on you code

• Make your changes locally

Stage and commit your changes

Stage your changes

git add .

Commit your changes

git commit -m "a commimt message"

Sync your branch with main

Optionally you can pull down changes made to main while you were working on your local branch.

This is useful if others have been updating main while you worked on your branch.

git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout feature/my-branch
git merge main

• feature/my-branch is your feature branch
• If there are merge conflicts you will need to resolve them

Push your changes to your remote

git push origin feature/my-branch

This makes your feature branch visible to the team on your remote repo and ready for a pull request.

Create a pull request (PR)

1. Log into your remote repo (github, gitlab, bitbucket)
2. Open a PR from your feature branch into main
3. Add a title and description for your PR
4. Tag a team member for review if needed
5. Create the pull request

Code review and merge

1. Review the pull request and comment as needed
2. If changes are needed make them on the same branch

  git add .
  git commit -m "additional changes from code review"
  git push origin feature/my-branch

1. Once approved, merge the PR into main using your git host’s web UI
2. After the merge is complete your git host should have the option to delete your feature branch. This will delete your branch from the remote host.

Local clean up

After your PR is merged you can delete you local branch

git checkout main
git pull origin main
git branch -d feature/my-branch

Optional remote clean up

If you do not use your git host to delete the remote branch after the merge is complete you can also do it with the following command.

git push origin --delete feature/my-branch