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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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:

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

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

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

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

.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

#!/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

// 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

// 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

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

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

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

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

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