Why your team needs a workflow

Without a shared workflow, these problems surface within days:

A good workflow solves all of these by establishing clear rules: where to branch from, how to name branches, when to merge, and who reviews the code before it reaches production.

The three main workflows

There are three dominant Git workflows used in the industry today. Each fits a different team size and release cadence.

GitHub Flow

The simplest workflow. You have one permanent branch (main) and create short-lived feature branches for every change.

# 1. Create a feature branch from main
git checkout main
git pull
git checkout -b feature/add-search

# 2. Work on your feature, commit often
git add src/search.js
git commit -m "feat: add search input component"

# 3. Push and open a pull request
git push -u origin feature/add-search
# Open PR on GitHub for code review

# 4. After approval, merge into main
# (Usually done via the GitHub UI)

# 5. Delete the feature branch
git branch -d feature/add-search

GitHub Flow works best for teams that deploy continuously. There is no separate "release" step because every merge to main is a potential deployment.

Git Flow

A more structured workflow designed for teams with scheduled releases. It uses five branch types:

main ─────────────────────────────────── (production)
  \                                    /
   develop ──────────────────────────── (integration)
     \          \            /
      feature/x  feature/y  (merged to develop)
                  \
                   release/1.2 ──────── (testing)
                                \
main ────────────────────────────── (tagged v1.2)
  \
   hotfix/critical ──────────────────── (emergency)

Git Flow adds complexity but gives you clear separation between development, testing, and production code.

Trunk-Based DevelopmentWhat is trunk-based development?A workflow where all developers commit frequently to a single shared branch, relying on feature flags to hide incomplete work. Ask AI for more

The most aggressive workflow. Everyone commits to main (the "trunk") frequently, using feature flags to hide unfinished work.

# Work directly on main with small commits
git checkout main
git pull

# Add feature behind a flag
git add src/search.js
git commit -m "feat: add search (behind feature flag)"
git push

# The feature flag controls visibility
if (featureFlags.search) {
  renderSearchBar();
}

This works for teams with strong automated testing and continuous deployment pipelines. Without those safeguards, it is risky because broken code goes straight to main.

Choosing the right workflow

Most teams start with GitHub Flow because it is simple and effective. Only switch to Git Flow if you genuinely need scheduled releases with separate testing phases.

Quick reference