Git Flow

Git Flow is a Git branching strategy. It defines how you create and use branches while developing features, fixing bugs, and releasing versions.

The basic idea is:

main
  │
  ├── develop
  │     │
  │     ├── feature/login
  │     ├── feature/tasks
  │     └── feature/profile
  │
  └── release / hotfix

Main branches

main

Contains production/released code.

main
 ↓
what users get

develop

Contains the latest development work before it is released.

develop
 ↓
next version

Feature branch

When implementing a feature:

git checkout develop
git checkout -b feature/login

You work on:

feature/login

Then merge it into develop:

feature/login
       ↓
    develop

Release branch

When you’re preparing a new version:

develop
   ↓
release/1.2.0

You use the release branch for final testing, bug fixes, version numbers, etc.

Then:

release/1.2.0
       ↓
     main

and usually also merge the fixes back into develop.

Hotfix branch

If production has a critical bug:

main
 │
 └── hotfix/login-bug
          ↓
        main

After fixing it, you also merge the fix into develop.

---

The complete flow

                  feature/login
                 ↗
develop ────────────────→
   │
   │
   └────→ release/1.2.0 ───→ main
                              ↑
                         hotfix/bug

Important

Git Flow is not Git itself.

Git provides:

branches
commits
merges
tags

Git Flow is a recommended workflow for using those features.

Also, Git Flow is not the only workflow. Modern teams often use GitHub Flow or trunk-based development, which are usually simpler.

For a small personal project, you probably don’t need full Git Flow. A simpler approach like:

main
  ↑
feature/xxx

is often enough.

---

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