Structures git workflow practices. Use when making any code change. Use when committing, branching, resolving conflicts, or when you need to organize work across multiple parallel streams.
---
name: git-workflow-and-versioning
description: Structures git workflow practices. Use when making any code change. Use when committing, branching, resolving conflicts, or when you need to organize work across multiple parallel streams. Use when cutting a release, choosing a semantic version bump, tagging, or writing a changelog.
---
# Git Workflow and Versioning
## Overview
Git is your safety net. Treat commits as save points, branches as sandboxes, and history as documentation. With AI agents generating code at high speed, disciplined version control is the mechanism that keeps changes manageable, reviewable, and reversible.
## When to Use
Always. Every code change flows through git.
## Core Principles
### Trunk-Based Development (Recommended)
Keep `main` always deployable. Work in short-lived feature branches that merge back within 1-3 days. Long-lived development branches are hidden costs — they diverge, create merge conflicts, and delay integration. DORA research consistently shows trunk-based development correlates with high-performing engineering teams.
```
main ──●──●──●──●──●──●──●──●──●── (always deployable)
╲ ╱ ╲ ╱
●──●─╱ ●──╱ ← short-lived feature branches (1-3 days)… install to load the full skill