Custom Branch Name Templates and Patterns

Create custom branch name templates using {type}, {ticket}, and {title} variables to match your team's specific naming conventions and CI/CD requirements.

Best Practices

Detailed Explanation

Custom Branch Name Templates

The Git Branch Name Generator uses a template system with three variables — {type}, {ticket}, and {title} — that can be arranged in any order with any separator to match your team's specific conventions.

Built-in Templates

Template Example Output
{type}/{ticket}-{title} feature/proj-123-add-auth
{type}/{title} feature/add-auth
{ticket}-{title} proj-123-add-auth
{type}/{ticket}/{title} feature/proj-123/add-auth

Advanced Template Patterns

Teams can create more complex patterns by adding literal text to the template:

Template Example Output Use Case
{type}/user/{ticket}-{title} feature/user/proj-123-add-auth User-namespaced
{type}/{ticket}-wip-{title} feature/proj-123-wip-add-auth Work-in-progress marker
{type}/v2/{ticket}-{title} feature/v2/proj-123-add-auth Version-scoped

How Template Variables Work

Each variable is replaced and sanitized independently:

  • {type} — Replaced with the selected branch type (feature, bugfix, etc.). Always lowercase, never modified.
  • {ticket} — Replaced with the ticket/issue input. Sanitized according to options (lowercase, strip special chars). The # prefix from GitHub issues is removed.
  • {title} — Replaced with the title/description. Spaces are converted to the convention's separator, special characters are stripped, and the result is lowercased if the option is enabled.

Team Convention Examples

Startup with GitHub Issues:

Template: {type}/{ticket}-{title}
Result:   feature/123-add-user-auth

Enterprise with JIRA and team namespaces:

Template: {type}/backend/{ticket}-{title}
Result:   feature/backend/plat-1234-api-redesign

Solo developer, date-based:

Template: {type}/{title}
Result:   feature/add-dark-mode

Tips for Choosing a Template

  • Include {ticket} if your team uses any issue tracker — traceability is invaluable
  • Keep the template simple enough that developers can type branch names manually when needed
  • Test your template with long titles to ensure the truncation produces sensible results
  • Document your chosen template in the repository's CONTRIBUTING.md file

Use Case

A team lead wants to establish a custom branch naming template that includes the team name as a namespace, integrates with their JIRA-based workflow, and is short enough for CI/CD artifact naming.

Try It — Git Branch Name Generator

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