Branch Workflow
📌 Covered in this chapter:
Main/Feature/Release/Hotfix Branches · Naming Conventions · Branch Cleanup
Understand common branch types — main, feature, bug-fix, release, and hotfix — and adopt clear naming conventions.
1Branch Workflow — What You'll Learn
Understand common branch types — main, feature, bug-fix, release, and hotfix — and adopt clear naming conventions.
Here's everything this chapter covers, in the order you'll learn it:
- The main branch as the stable source of truth
- Feature branches for new work
- Bug-fix branches for fixing issues
- Release branches for preparing a version
- Hotfix branches for urgent production fixes
- Consistent branch naming
- Committing safely on a branch
- Switching branches without losing work
- Cleaning up old, merged branches
- Branch protection (overview, covered fully in Phase 11)
2Working Example
💻 Example: Branch Workflow
Text
feature/java-tutorial
fix/navbar-mobile-layout
docs/update-readme
chore/update-dependencies3Best Practices & Common Pitfalls
💡 Key things to remember:
- A consistent prefix system (feature/, fix/, docs/, chore/) makes it instantly clear what kind of work a branch contains, both to humans and to automation.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q What's the most important thing to understand about branch workflow?
Focus on: Main/Feature/Release/Hotfix Branches · Naming Conventions · Branch Cleanup. These are the core building blocks this chapter's examples are built around, and they show up repeatedly in later chapters of this course.
Q Is branch workflow something I'll use often in real projects?
Yes — every concept in this chapter reflects a real, everyday part of professional Git and GitHub workflows, not just a theoretical exercise.