A simple but effective Git branching strategy inspired by GitHub Flow

🧩 1. main Branch – Production Ready

"main is our stable, production-ready branch. We protect it by blocking direct pushes and only allowing changes through Pull Requests. This ensures only reviewed, tested, and validated code gets deployed."

🌱 2. Feature Branches (feature/xyz)

"When we start a new feature, we create a branch like feature/user-login. All development happens there, isolated from the production code. Once the feature is complete, we open a Pull Request to main."

🐞 3. Bugfix Branches (bugfix/abc)

"Similarly, for bugs, we create bugfix branches like bugfix/api-timeout. These are also merged through PRs after testing."

🚀 4. Release Branches (release/1.0.0)

"When preparing for a release, we create a release branch. QA teams can test it, and only bugfixes are allowed here. After everything is good, it’s merged into main and tagged for deployment."

🔒 5. Branch Protection & PR Reviews

"We use branch protection rules so that no one can push directly to main. Every change must go through a Pull Request, which triggers CI pipelines to run tests, linters, and security checks. At least one reviewer has to approve the PR before it can be merged."

🔁 6. CI/CD Integration

"CI tools like GitHub Actions run automated tests for every PR. If tests fail, the PR can’t be merged. This keeps our main branch clean and always deployable."

📋 Best Practices Reflected