Git Branch Naming Conventions and Best Practices

Git Branch Naming Conventions

Consistent branch naming improves team communication, enables CI/CD automation, and makes repository navigation easier.

Common Prefixes

Prefix	Purpose	Example
feature/	New features	feature/user-auth
bugfix/	Non-urgent bug fixes	bugfix/login-redirect
hotfix/	Urgent production fixes	hotfix/payment-crash
release/	Release preparation	release/v2.1.0
chore/	Maintenance tasks	chore/update-deps
docs/	Documentation updates	docs/api-reference
experiment/	Experimental work	experiment/new-algorithm

Naming Rules

1. Use lowercase with hyphens: feature/user-auth (not Feature/UserAuth)
2. Include a ticket number if your team uses issue trackers: feature/JIRA-123-user-auth
3. Keep it short but descriptive: bugfix/null-pointer not bugfix/fix-the-null-pointer-exception-in-user-service
4. No spaces -- use hyphens: feature/add-search
5. No special characters except / and -

CI/CD Integration

Branch names can trigger different CI/CD behaviors:

# GitHub Actions example
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main          # Production deploy
      - release/*     # Staging deploy
      - feature/*     # Run tests only

Gitflow Naming

The Gitflow model uses specific branch names:

• main -- production-ready code
• develop -- integration branch
• feature/* -- new features
• release/* -- release preparation
• hotfix/* -- urgent production fixes

Trunk-Based Development

Simpler naming with short-lived branches:

• main -- the only long-lived branch
• <developer>/<short-description> -- e.g., jane/add-login

Cleanup

# Delete merged local branches
git branch --merged main | grep -v main | xargs git branch -d

# Delete merged remote branches
git remote prune origin