Git

Git Best Practices

Git is the backbone of our development workflow. Adhering to these practices ensures a clean, readable history, minimizes conflicts, and enables rapid, reliable delivery. These are non-negotiable standards.

1. Branching Strategy: Feature-Branch Workflow

We use a feature-branch workflow with short-lived branches. All development happens on dedicated branches, never directly on main or develop.

• main branch: Always production-ready. Only merges from release branches or squashed feature branches are allowed. Protected.
• develop branch: Integrates completed features. Protected.
• Feature branches: Created from develop, short-lived, for a single feature or bug fix. Merged into develop via Pull Requests (PRs).

Guideline: Branch Naming

Name branches clearly and consistently, linking directly to a ticket or feature.

❌ BAD:

git checkout -b my-feature
git checkout -b fix

✅ GOOD:

# For a new feature (e.g., JIRA ticket FEAT-123)
git checkout -b feat/FEAT-123-add-user-profile

# For a bug fix (e.g., JIRA ticket BUG-456)
git checkout -b fix/BUG-456-auth-redirect-loop

# For a refactor
git checkout -b refactor/improve-logging-middleware

2. Commit Messages: Conventional Commits

Every commit message must follow the Conventional Commits specification. This enables automated changelog generation and semantic versioning.

Format: <type>(<scope>): <description>

• type: feat, fix, docs, style, refactor, perf, test, build, ci, chore, revert.
• scope (optional): The part of the codebase affected (e.g., auth, api, ui, database).
• description: Concise, imperative, present tense. Max 50 characters.
• Body (optional): More detailed explanation, breaking changes, references to issues.

Guideline: Write Clear, Atomic Commits

Each commit should represent a single logical change.

❌ BAD:

git commit -m "Fixed bug and added new feature"

✅ GOOD:

# First commit for the fix
git commit -m "fix(auth): Correctly handle expired tokens" -m "This fixes an issue where users were stuck in a redirect loop after their session expired. Now, they are redirected to the login page."

# Second commit for the feature
git commit -m "feat(profile): Implement user profile view" -m "Adds a new page for users to view and edit their profile information."

3. History Management: Rebase, Don't Merge (on feature branches)

Maintain a linear, clean history on feature branches before merging into develop. Use git rebase -i to squash, reorder, or edit commits.

Guideline: Clean Up Local History Before PR

Before pushing your feature branch for a Pull Request, rebase it onto the latest develop and squash related commits into logical units.

❌ BAD:

# On feature/my-feature branch
git pull origin develop # Creates a merge commit
git push origin feature/my-feature # Pushes messy history

✅ GOOD:

# On feature/my-feature branch
git fetch origin
git rebase -i origin/develop # Interactively clean up commits
# ... complete rebase, squash WIP commits ...
git push --force-with-lease origin feature/my-feature # Force push after rebase

Note: Only force push your own feature branches that haven't been merged or shared widely. Never force push to main or develop.

Guideline: Merge Feature Branches with --no-ff

When merging a feature branch into develop (via PR), always use --no-ff to preserve the branch history.

❌ BAD:

# After PR approval, merging directly on local machine
git checkout develop
git merge feature/my-feature # Might fast-forward, losing branch context

✅ GOOD:

# After PR approval, on develop branch
git checkout develop
git pull origin develop # Ensure develop is up-to-date
git merge --no-ff feature/my-feature -m "Merge feat(FEAT-123): Add user profile"
git push origin develop

Note: Our PR process on GitHub/GitLab should enforce this automatically.

4. Code Quality & Security: Git Hooks with pre-commit

Automate code quality checks and security scans before code hits the repository. We use the pre-commit framework.

Guideline: Install and Use pre-commit

Every developer must install and keep pre-commit hooks updated. This prevents common issues like linting errors, formatting inconsistencies, and accidental secret commits.

1. Install pre-commit:

   pip install pre-commit # If using Python
   # Or via brew, npm, etc.
   

2. Install hooks in your repo:

   pre-commit install
   

3. Update hooks regularly:

   pre-commit autoupdate
   

Example .pre-commit-config.yaml (project-specific)

# .pre-commit-config.yaml
repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
    rev: v4.5.0
    hooks:
      - id: trailing-whitespace
      - id: end-of-file-fixer
      - id: check-yaml
      - id: check-json
      - id: detect-private-key
      - id: no-commit-to-branch
        args: [--branch, main, --branch, develop] # Prevent direct commits to protected branches

  - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
    rev: 23.12.1
    hooks:
      - id: black

  - repo: https://github.com/charliermarsh/ruff-pre-commit
    rev: 'v0.1.9'
    hooks:
      - id: ruff
        args: [--fix, --exit-non-zero-on-fix]

  - repo: https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets
    rev: v1.4.0
    hooks:
      - id: detect-secrets
        args: ['--baseline', '.secrets.baseline'] # Manage known false positives

This configuration will run black (Python formatter), ruff (Python linter), and detect-secrets on staged files, among other checks, before a commit is allowed.

5. Repository Hygiene: .gitignore and Large Files

Keep your repository clean and focused on source code.

Guideline: Use a Comprehensive .gitignore

Exclude generated files, dependencies, build artifacts, and sensitive information.

❌ BAD:

# .gitignore
*.log

✅ GOOD:

# .gitignore
# Operating System
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# Build artifacts
/dist/
/build/

# Dependencies
/node_modules/
/venv/
__pycache__/

# IDE files
.idea/
.vscode/

# Environment variables & secrets
.env
*.env
config.local.js

Guideline: Manage Large Files with Git LFS

Never commit large binary files (images, videos, large datasets, compiled executables) directly to Git. Use Git Large File Storage (LFS).

1. Install Git LFS: git lfs install
2. Track file types:

   git lfs track "*.psd"
   git lfs track "assets/*.mp4"
   

3. Add to .gitattributes: This command updates .gitattributes which must be committed.
4. Add and commit files normally:

   git add .gitattributes
   git add my_large_file.psd
   git commit -m "chore(assets): Add large PSD file via LFS"
   

6. Resolving Conflicts: Proactive and Careful

Merge conflicts are inevitable. Resolve them carefully and proactively.

Guideline: Pull Frequently

Pull changes from develop (or your base branch) frequently to minimize the scope of potential conflicts.

git checkout feature/my-feature
git pull origin develop --rebase # Rebase your branch onto develop to avoid merge commits

Guideline: Resolve Conflicts Manually

Use your IDE's merge tool or git mergetool to resolve conflicts. Understand each change.

❌ BAD:

git merge develop --no-edit -X theirs # Blindly taking "their" changes

✅ GOOD:

git merge develop # Git will prompt for conflicts
# Open conflicted files in your IDE, resolve manually
# Or use `git mergetool`
git add <resolved_files>
git commit -m "Merge develop into feat/my-feature and resolve conflicts"