Git Workflow

Implement effective branching strategies and pull request workflows for team collaboration.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

•Establishing team Git workflows
•Implementing branching strategies
•Configuring pull request processes
•Setting up release management
•Improving code review practices

Prerequisites

•Git installed
•Repository hosting (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
•Basic Git knowledge

Branching Strategies

Trunk-Based Development

Best for: Continuous deployment, small teams, mature CI/CD

code

main ─────●─────●─────●─────●─────●─────●─────●
          │     │     │     │     │     │
          └─●   └─●   └─●   └─●   └─●   └─●
         feature branches (short-lived)

bash

# Create short-lived feature branch
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout -b feature/add-login

# Work and commit frequently
git add .
git commit -m "feat: add login form"

# Keep branch updated
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main

# Merge quickly (same day ideally)
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git merge feature/add-login
git push origin main
git branch -d feature/add-login

GitHub Flow

Best for: Continuous delivery, web applications

code

main ─────●─────●───────────●─────────────●─────●
          │           ↑           ↑       ↑
          └───●───●───┘           │       │
              feature/login       │       │
                                  │       │
          └───●───●───●───●───────┘       │
              feature/dashboard           │
                                          │
          └───●─────────────────────────┘
              hotfix/security-patch

bash

# Create feature branch from main
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout -b feature/user-dashboard

# Push and create PR
git push -u origin feature/user-dashboard

# After review, merge via PR (squash recommended)
# Delete branch after merge

GitFlow

Best for: Scheduled releases, versioned products

code

main     ────────●────────────────●──────────────●
                 ↑                ↑              ↑
release  ────────┼────●───●──────┼──────────────┼
                 │    │   │      │              │
develop  ───●────●────┼───●──●───●───●───●───●──┼
            │         │      │       │   │      │
feature  ───┴─────────┘      │       │   │      │
                             │       │   │      │
hotfix   ────────────────────┴───────┼───┼──────┘
                                     │   │
feature  ────────────────────────────┴───┘

bash

# Initialize GitFlow
git flow init

# Start feature
git flow feature start user-auth

# Finish feature (merges to develop)
git flow feature finish user-auth

# Start release
git flow release start 1.0.0

# Finish release (merges to main and develop)
git flow release finish 1.0.0

# Hotfix
git flow hotfix start security-fix
git flow hotfix finish security-fix

Commit Conventions

Conventional Commits

code

<type>(<scope>): <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer(s)]

Types:

•feat: New feature
•fix: Bug fix
•docs: Documentation
•style: Formatting
•refactor: Code restructuring
•test: Adding tests
•chore: Maintenance

Examples:

bash

git commit -m "feat(auth): add OAuth2 login support"
git commit -m "fix(api): handle null response from payment service"
git commit -m "docs: update API documentation for v2 endpoints"
git commit -m "refactor(db): optimize user query performance"

# Breaking change
git commit -m "feat(api)!: change response format for user endpoint

BREAKING CHANGE: The user endpoint now returns an object instead of array"

Commit Message Template

bash

# Create template file ~/.gitmessage
# Subject line (50 chars max)

# Body (72 chars per line max)
# - What changed
# - Why it changed
# - Any side effects

# Footer
# Fixes #123
# Co-authored-by: Name <email>

# Configure Git to use template
git config --global commit.template ~/.gitmessage

Pull Request Workflow

PR Template

markdown

<!-- .github/pull_request_template.md -->
## Description
Brief description of changes

## Type of Change
- [ ] Bug fix (non-breaking change)
- [ ] New feature (non-breaking change)
- [ ] Breaking change
- [ ] Documentation update

## Testing
- [ ] Unit tests added/updated
- [ ] Integration tests added/updated
- [ ] Manual testing performed

## Checklist
- [ ] Code follows project style guidelines
- [ ] Self-review performed
- [ ] Documentation updated
- [ ] No new warnings introduced

## Related Issues
Closes #

## Screenshots (if applicable)

Branch Protection Rules

yaml

# GitHub branch protection
branch_protection:
  branch: main
  required_pull_request_reviews:
    required_approving_review_count: 1
    dismiss_stale_reviews: true
    require_code_owner_reviews: true
  required_status_checks:
    strict: true
    contexts:
      - "ci/tests"
      - "ci/lint"
  restrictions:
    users: []
    teams: ["maintainers"]
  enforce_admins: true
  required_linear_history: true
  allow_force_pushes: false
  allow_deletions: false

Code Owners

code

# .github/CODEOWNERS

# Default owners
* @team-leads

# Frontend code
/src/frontend/ @frontend-team
*.tsx @frontend-team
*.css @frontend-team

# Backend code
/src/api/ @backend-team
/src/services/ @backend-team

# Infrastructure
/terraform/ @platform-team
/k8s/ @platform-team
Dockerfile @platform-team

# Documentation
/docs/ @tech-writers
*.md @tech-writers

Git Hooks

Pre-commit Hook

bash

#!/bin/sh
# .git/hooks/pre-commit

# Run linting
npm run lint
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "Linting failed. Fix errors before committing."
  exit 1
fi

# Run tests
npm run test:unit
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "Tests failed. Fix tests before committing."
  exit 1
fi

# Check for debug statements
if grep -r "console.log\|debugger\|binding.pry" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.rb" src/; then
  echo "Remove debug statements before committing."
  exit 1
fi

Using Husky

json

// package.json
{
  "husky": {
    "hooks": {
      "pre-commit": "lint-staged",
      "commit-msg": "commitlint -E HUSKY_GIT_PARAMS"
    }
  },
  "lint-staged": {
    "*.{js,ts,tsx}": ["eslint --fix", "prettier --write"],
    "*.{css,scss}": ["prettier --write"]
  }
}

Commitlint Configuration

javascript

// commitlint.config.js
module.exports = {
  extends: ['@commitlint/config-conventional'],
  rules: {
    'type-enum': [
      2,
      'always',
      ['feat', 'fix', 'docs', 'style', 'refactor', 'test', 'chore', 'revert']
    ],
    'subject-max-length': [2, 'always', 72],
    'body-max-line-length': [2, 'always', 100]
  }
};

Release Workflow

Automated Release with Tags

bash

# Create annotated tag
git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release version 1.0.0"

# Push tag
git push origin v1.0.0

# Create release from tag (GitHub CLI)
gh release create v1.0.0 \
  --title "Release 1.0.0" \
  --notes "Release notes here" \
  --target main

Changelog Generation

bash

# Using conventional-changelog
npx conventional-changelog -p angular -i CHANGELOG.md -s

# Using git-cliff
git cliff -o CHANGELOG.md

Common Git Operations

Rebase vs Merge

bash

# Rebase (clean history)
git checkout feature/my-feature
git rebase main
git push --force-with-lease

# Merge (preserve history)
git checkout main
git merge feature/my-feature

# Squash merge (single commit)
git merge --squash feature/my-feature
git commit -m "feat: add feature X"

Cherry Pick

bash

# Apply specific commit to current branch
git cherry-pick abc123

# Cherry pick range
git cherry-pick abc123..def456

# Cherry pick without committing
git cherry-pick -n abc123

Interactive Rebase

bash

# Clean up last 3 commits
git rebase -i HEAD~3

# In editor:
# pick abc123 First commit
# squash def456 Second commit
# reword ghi789 Third commit

Common Issues

Issue: Merge Conflicts

Problem: Conflicts when merging branches Solution: Rebase frequently, communicate with team, use smaller PRs

Issue: Diverged Branches

Problem: Local branch far behind remote Solution: git pull --rebase or git fetch && git rebase origin/main

Issue: Accidental Commit to Wrong Branch

Problem: Committed to main instead of feature Solution: git reset HEAD~1, checkout correct branch, recommit

Best Practices

•Keep branches short-lived (< 1 week)
•Write meaningful commit messages
•Use PR templates consistently
•Require code reviews
•Protect main/master branch
•Automate checks with CI
•Squash merge for clean history
•Delete branches after merge

Related Skills

•semantic-versioning - Version management
•github-actions - CI/CD automation
•feature-flags - Feature management