Git for Engineers›Branching Strategies

Branching Strategies

Git Flow, trunk-based development, and when to use each.

~15 min read

Branching Strategies

Branching is Git's superpower. Here's how to use it well.

Git Flow

Long-lived branches: main, develop, feature, release, hotfix.

Best for: versioned software with scheduled releases.

Trunk-Based Development

Everyone commits to main. Feature flags gate incomplete work.

Best for: continuous deployment, fast-moving teams.

GitHub Flow

main is always deployable. Create a branch, open a PR, merge.

Best for: most web applications.