Git Team Best Practices for Collaboration

1. General Principles

Commit Often, Commit Small: Make frequent, meaningful commits with clear messages. Avoid huge commits with mixed changes.

Example: "Add login validation for username field" instead of "Fix stuff".
Use Descriptive Branch Names: Make it easy for teammates to understand purpose.

Examples: feature/shopping-cart, bugfix/payment-error, hotfix/login-crash.
Keep Local Repo Updated: Always git pull before starting work to avoid conflicts.
Code Review: Use Pull Requests (PRs) to review and discuss changes before merging into main branches.
Document Work: Include context in PR descriptions for easier understanding.

Branch Type	Purpose	Rules
`main`	Production-ready code	Never push directly; use PRs only
`develop`	Integration of features for the next release	Merge completed features
`feature/*`	New features or tasks	Created from `develop`, merge back after done
`release/*`	Prepare release	Created from `develop`, final testing/fixes, merged to `main` & `develop`
`hotfix/*`	Critical production fixes	Created from `main`, merged to `main` & `develop`

Short-lived feature branches: Don’t keep branches alive too long to reduce conflicts.
Synchronize often: Rebase or merge develop frequently into feature branches.
Delete merged branches: Helps reduce clutter.

Protect main branch: Use branch protection rules (require PR reviews, CI passes before merge).
Tag releases: Use semantic versioning: v1.0.0, v1.0.1.
Use release branches: Allows testing and final adjustments before deploying.
Hotfixes: For urgent production issues, branch from main → fix → merge back into main and develop.