Git Flow Next

git-flow-next

git-flow-next (https://git-flow.sh/, repo gittower/git-flow-next) is the Gitflow CLI this skill applies to — no other git-flow forks.

Do not confuse with the abandoned forks

Both legacy tools ship a git-flow binary too, which makes mix-ups easy.

• nvie/gitflow — the original 2010-era shell script, unmaintained for over a decade.
• petervanderdoes/gitflow-avh — the AVH fork, no longer actively developed.

If command -v git-flow resolves outside mise's shim directory, or brew list shows git-flow / git-flow-avh, follow the migrate from old git-flow / gitflow-avh procedure below before installing git-flow-next. The binary name (git-flow) is the same; only one can win on $PATH.

Hard rules

1. Only git-flow-next is allowed. No nvie/gitflow, no gitflow-avh, no shell-script forks.

2. Install through mise's aqua backend, per the mise skill — pinned in mise.toml as aqua:gittower/git-flow-next, recorded in mise.lock. The explicit aqua: prefix is required here, overriding the mise skill's preference for bare names: the bare name git-flow is ambiguous in mise's registry (legacy nvie/gitflow and gitflow-avh claim it too), so naming the aqua package directly is the only way to be sure git-flow-next wins. No brew install git-flow-next, no manual binary downloads, no go install.

3. Rebase-to-one-commit is the upstream merge strategy for feature branches. The branch is collapsed into a single commit with a hand-written message before finish (not by the merge tool), so the original authorship is preserved and the per-WIP commit messages don't end up concatenated on develop. Enforced once, in exactly one place per repo:

   • Local-finish workflow — set gitflow.branch.feature.upstreamstrategy = rebase so git flow feature finish rebases the feature branch onto develop linearly, no merge commit. The contributor is responsible for collapsing the branch to a single commit (git rebase -i $(git merge-base HEAD develop) with fixup on every non-first commit, then a clean message) before running git flow feature finish. Do not use upstreamstrategy = squash — it creates a new commit without the original author and concatenates all commit messages by default, which is the behavior this policy exists to avoid.
   • PR-review workflow — leave that key unset and configure the hosting platform's PR-merge button to rebase and merge (not "squash and merge", not plain "create a merge commit"). The contributor collapses the branch to a single commit locally (interactive rebase as above) before requesting review, so what lands on develop is the one clean commit they wrote. Hosting-platform "squash and merge" is not an acceptable substitute — by default it concatenates the per-commit messages into the body and, depending on platform settings, may attribute the resulting commit to the merger rather than the contributor. The merger has to override both manually on every PR.

   Pick one path per repo; mixing both double-applies or fails. Releases and hotfixes keep their default merge strategy so the merge commit and the version tag stay paired.

4. Use the classic preset. main and develop are the long-lived branches; topic prefixes are feature/, release/, hotfix/, bugfix/. Other presets (github, gitlab) are out of scope for this skill — if a project explicitly requires one, fall back to git-flow-next's upstream docs and do not apply the rest of this skill.

Verifying memory against docs

git-flow-next is young and changes flag names, config keys, and preset behavior between releases. If anything below — command flags, config keys, preset contents, binary names, version availability — looks unfamiliar or stale, verify at https://git-flow.sh/docs before writing config or running commands. Do not guess.

Procedure: install via mise

This skill specifies what to install; the mise skill governs how — creating mise.toml with the required [settings] block, mise trust / mise install / mise ls, the lockfile, the commit. If the project isn't on mise yet, run the mise skill's setup procedure first; do not duplicate its steps here.

git-flow-next-specific steps:

1. Pick a pinned version (releases: https://github.com/gittower/git-flow-next/releases).

2. Add the entry under [tools] in mise.toml via the explicit aqua: backend — the pkgs/gittower/git-flow-next aqua package ships a git-flow binary, and Hard rule 2 explains why the bare name is unsafe here:

   [tools]
   "aqua:gittower/git-flow-next" = "1.1.0"
   

3. After running the install per the mise skill, verify git-flow-next specifically:

   git flow version
   

   It should print the pinned version. If it prints something else, another git-flow binary is shadowing the mise-managed one on $PATH — locate it with command -v git-flow and remove it (the typical culprit is a Homebrew install of the old git-flow or git-flow-avh).

Procedure: initialize a repository

Run from the repo root. The classic preset configures Gitflow branches and prefixes: main ← develop ← feature/, plus release/, hotfix/, bugfix/. --defaults skips the interactive prompts.

git flow init --preset=classic --defaults

If the production branch isn't main, or any branch / prefix needs a different name, drop --defaults and pass the documented overrides instead (--main=master, --develop=…, --feature=feat/, etc.).

Then, in the local-finish workflow (Hard rule 3), enable rebase on feature finish:

git config gitflow.branch.feature.upstreamstrategy rebase

In the PR-review workflow, skip this command and configure the platform's PR-merge button to "rebase and merge" instead.

Verify:

git config --get-regexp '^gitflow\.'

The output should list the preset's branch and prefix entries. For the local-finish workflow it must also include gitflow.branch.feature.upstreamstrategy rebase; for the PR-review workflow that key must be absent.

Procedure: feature branch lifecycle

The procedure below describes the local-finish workflow (Hard rule 3): the contributor collapses the feature branch into a single commit locally, then git flow feature finish rebases that one commit onto develop. For the PR-review workflow, jump to the alternative section below.

Start:

git flow feature start <name>

This creates feature/<name> from develop and checks it out. Work on it normally — commit, push for backup or sharing if needed.

Publish (optional, for shared work):

git flow feature publish <name>

Collapse to a single commit (Hard rule 3): before finishing, rebase the feature branch interactively against the current develop and fold every commit but the first into it, then rewrite the resulting commit message into a clean, self-contained summary.

git rebase -i $(git merge-base HEAD develop)
# In the editor: keep the first line as `pick`,
# change every following line to `fixup` (drops their messages) or
# `squash` (keeps and lets you edit them).
# Save and exit; if you used `squash` or `reword`,
# the editor reopens for the final commit message —
# write a clean, self-contained summary.

Equivalent shortcut when none of the existing commit messages are worth keeping:

git reset --soft $(git merge-base HEAD develop)
git commit -m "<clean summary of the feature>"

After the collapse, git log develop..HEAD should show exactly one commit.

Finish:

git flow feature finish <name>

With upstreamstrategy=rebase set, this:

1. switches to develop,
2. rebases the (now single-commit) feature/<name> onto develop linearly — no merge commit, original authorship and the hand-written message preserved,
3. deletes the local feature/<name> branch.

Push develop afterwards. Argument-less shorthand works on the current branch:

git flow finish

If the collapse step is skipped, git flow feature finish will still rebase, but every WIP commit on the feature branch will land on develop as a separate commit — which is not the policy this skill enforces. finish also deletes the feature branch, so recovery means interactive-rebasing develop itself (git rebase -i origin/develop) to fold the new commits into one before pushing — only safe while those commits are still local. Don't skip the collapse step.

PR-review alternative

In the PR-review workflow (Hard rule 3), the rebase-merge is produced by the hosting platform's "rebase and merge" button, not by git flow feature finish. The contributor still collapses the branch to a single commit locally before opening or updating the PR (same git rebase -i / git reset --soft procedure as above) — otherwise multiple commits land on develop, defeating the policy. After the PR is merged:

• the remote feature branch is already gone (the platform deletes it on merge, in the typical settings);
• delete the local copy with git branch -d feature/<name> (or git flow feature delete <name>);
• do not run git flow feature finish — it would double-apply or fail.

Procedure: release branches

Releases keep the default merge strategy so the merge commit and the tag stay paired.

git flow release start 1.4.0
# bump version files, update changelog, commit
git flow release finish 1.4.0 --tag --message "release 1.4.0"

release finish merges into main, tags the merge, merges main back into develop, and deletes the release branch.

Procedure: hotfix branches

git flow hotfix start 1.4.1
# fix, commit
git flow hotfix finish 1.4.1 --tag --message "hotfix 1.4.1"

hotfix finish mirrors release finish: merge to main, tag, merge main back into develop, delete the hotfix branch.

Procedure: bugfix branches

Bugfix branches target develop like features but are reserved for non-feature defects; production fixes go through hotfix. The lifecycle mirrors features:

git flow bugfix start <name>
# fix, commit
git flow bugfix finish <name>

bugfix finish uses the default merge upstream strategy. If the repo wants bugfixes collapsed like features (local-finish workflow per Hard rule 3), set the analogous key and follow the same collapse-then-finish procedure (interactive rebase → single commit → finish):

git config gitflow.branch.bugfix.upstreamstrategy rebase

In the PR-review workflow, treat bugfix branches the same as features — the platform produces the rebase-merge, no local git flow bugfix finish.

Procedure: migrate from old git-flow / gitflow-avh

Trigger when command -v git-flow resolves to a Homebrew or manual install of nvie/gitflow or petervanderdoes/gitflow-avh, or when brew list / apt list --installed shows git-flow or gitflow-avh.

1. Confirm the existing setup is a legacy fork: command -v git-flow, then git-flow version — the legacy AVH fork prints AVH Edition, nvie's prints a version like 0.4.x with no Go/Tower attribution.

2. Read the legacy Gitflow config — only to extract the branch and prefix names, not to reapply verbatim. The legacy forks and git-flow-next use different key schemas (legacy: gitflow.branch.master, gitflow.prefix.feature; git-flow-next: gitflow.branch.<type>.parent, gitflow.branch.<type>.prefix), so the captured keys can't be replayed — they're a source for git flow init flag values:

   git config --get-regexp '^gitflow\.'
   

   Note the values for gitflow.branch.master, gitflow.branch.develop, gitflow.prefix.feature, gitflow.prefix.release, gitflow.prefix.hotfix, and gitflow.prefix.bugfix.

3. Remove the old binary:

   • Homebrew: brew uninstall git-flow or brew uninstall git-flow-avh.
   • Manual install: delete the binary from its $PATH location.

4. Install git-flow-next via the procedure above.

5. Re-run git flow init, passing the names captured in step 2 as overrides (omit any flag whose value already matches the classic-preset default):

   git flow init --preset=classic \
     --main=<captured master/main> \
     --develop=<captured develop> \
     --feature=<captured feature prefix> \
     --release=<captured release prefix> \
     --hotfix=<captured hotfix prefix> \
     --bugfix=<captured bugfix prefix>
   

   If every captured value matches the classic defaults, git flow init --preset=classic --defaults is enough.

6. Re-apply the rebase setting per the workflow (Hard rule 3):

   • local-finish: git config gitflow.branch.feature.upstreamstrategy rebase, and follow the collapse-then-finish procedure (interactive rebase → single commit → git flow feature finish) on every feature;
   • PR-review: skip the config, configure the platform's PR-merge button to "rebase and merge", and collapse feature branches to a single commit locally before opening the PR.

7. Verify git flow version reports the git-flow-next version from mise.toml, and command -v git-flow resolves into ~/.local/share/mise/ (or wherever mise materializes shims).

Reporting

After changes, state which mise.toml entry was added or updated (tool, backend, version), which gitflow.* keys were set, which legacy binaries were removed, and the next commands the user should run (git flow version, git flow feature start <name>, or whatever fits the current task).