GitHub Flow

GitHub Flow is a lightweight, PR-centric workflow designed for continuous delivery. There is only one rule: main must always be deployable. Feature branches are short-lived and merge directly to main, triggering immediate deployment.

01.The Six Steps of GitHub Flow

Step 1: Branch — create a descriptive branch from main. Step 2: Commit — make small, clear commits as you build. Step 3: Pull Request — open a PR early (even as draft) to start discussion. Step 4: Review — teammates review, discuss, suggest changes. Step 5: Deploy — deploy the PR branch to staging to verify in production-like environment. Step 6: Merge — once approved, merge to main and deploy to production immediately.

Branch Visualization

main

feature

HEAD

02.GitHub Flow vs GitFlow Comparison

GitHub Flow: one permanent branch (main), feature branches only, deploy from main continuously. Simple, fast, great for web apps. GitFlow: two permanent branches (main + develop), five branch types, deploy from release branches on a schedule. Complex, slower, great for versioned software. Choose based on your deployment model: continuous = GitHub Flow, scheduled = GitFlow.

Distributed Architecture

💻

Your Local

push / pull

☁️

GitHub (Remote)

push / pull

💻

Teammate's Local

Commands

commands — click to reveal output

git checkout -b feature/add-search

Create branch from main (which is always production-ready)

git commit -m "Add search API endpoint"

Commit small, focused changes regularly

git push -u origin feature/add-search

Push branch to GitHub

gh pr create --draft --title "WIP: Add search"

Open draft PR early to get visibility and early feedback

gh pr ready 45

Mark PR as ready for final review when complete

gh pr merge 45 --squash --delete-branch

Merge, squash commits, delete branch automatically

# Deploy main to production immediately after merge

main is always production-ready — deploy with confidence

KNOWLEDGE CHECK

What is the single most important rule of GitHub Flow?

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