my-git

Gitflow

English

Gitflow is a classic branching model suitable for products with a clear version release cadence.

It divides daily development, release preparation, and live hotfixes into different branch roles. It is ideal for scenarios with distinct release cycles, such as clients, SDKs, and private deployments.

Branches

main: Production version history
develop: Integration branch
feature/*: Feature development
release/*: Release preparation
hotfix/*: Live urgent hotfixes

Typical Process

develop -> feature/* -> develop -> release/* -> main -> tag
                              \-> hotfix/* -> main -> develop

Suitable Scenarios

Need to maintain multiple versions
Have fixed release windows
High release costs for clients or SDKs
Live versions cannot be released at any time
Explicit testing and acceptance cycles before release

Unsuitable Scenarios

High-frequency Web service releases
Very small teams
Trunk can be deployed at any time
Mature CI/CD where release risks can be quickly rolled back

Advantages

Clear branch responsibilities
Explicit paths for release and hotfix
Suitable for versioned products
Easy to align with traditional release processes

Costs

Many branches, complex processes
develop and main may diverge for long periods
Hotfixes require backporting to multiple branches
May slow down the pace for high-frequency release teams

Decision Recommendations

Do not blindly copy Gitflow.

If your team releases Web services multiple times a day, GitHub Flow or Trunk-Based Development is often lighter.

If your product has clear version lines, release windows, and customer-side upgrade cycles, Gitflow still holds value.

Atlassian’s Gitflow tutorial also frames it within specific release-oriented scenarios: it is suitable for release trains, release prep, hotfixes, and heavily audited products. In modern CI/CD and high-frequency service delivery, long-lived branches increase the cost of diverging from the mainline and causing integration conflicts.

Enterprise Practice References

Tencent Cloud Gitflow Branching Practice can serve as a reference for Gitflow-style team guidelines, especially suitable for teams needing well-defined paths for releases, hotfixes, tags, and backporting.

Alibaba AoneFlow Branching Practice provides an alternative perspective: retaining the clear boundary between feature and release while reducing the complexity introduced by a long-lived develop branch.

Extended Reading

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