Git Branching Strategies: GitFlow, Trunk-Based & GitHub Flow

Is everyone on your team working in different branches? Merge conflicts never ending? The right branching strategy boosts team productivity and streamlines deployments.

1. GitFlow

The most structured strategy with dedicated branches:

main ────────────────────────────────────→
  └─ develop ────────────────────────────→
       ├─ feature/login ──→ merge to develop
       └─ release/1.0 ──→ merge to main + develop

| Branch | Purpose | Lifetime | |--------|---------|----------| | main | Production | Permanent | | develop | Development | Permanent | | feature/ | New features | Temporary | | release/ | Release prep | Temporary | | hotfix/ | Urgent fixes | Temporary |

Best for: Long release cycles, multiple version support.

2. GitHub Flow

Simple: main + feature branches.

1. Branch from main
2. Commit changes
3. Open Pull Request
4. Code review
5. Merge to main
6. Auto-deploy

Best for: Continuous deployment, small-medium teams, SaaS products.

3. Trunk-Based Development

Everyone works directly on main. Branches live at most 1 day.

• Daily merges
• Feature flags hide incomplete features
• Strong CI/CD pipeline required

Best for: High-frequency deployment (multiple times daily), Google/Meta-scale teams.

Comparison

| Feature | GitFlow | GitHub Flow | Trunk-Based | |---------|---------|-------------|-------------| | Complexity | High | Low | Lowest | | Deploy frequency | Weekly | Daily | Continuous | | Branch lifetime | Days/weeks | Hours/days | Hours | | Feature flags | Optional | Optional | Nearly required |

Commit Conventions

feat: new feature
fix: bug fix
docs: documentation
refactor: restructuring
test: adding tests
chore: config, dependencies

Best Practices

1. Small PRs — 200-400 lines ideal
2. Mandatory code review — At least 1 reviewer
3. CI on every PR — No merge without passing tests
4. Branch protection — Block direct pushes to main
5. Squash merge — Clean commit history
6. Clean up — Delete merged branches

Conclusion

Choose your branching strategy based on team size, deploy frequency, and project complexity. Small teams → GitHub Flow, fast deployment → Trunk-Based, complex versioning → GitFlow.

Learn Git and branching strategies on LabLudus.