1.4GitHub Flow in Detail

GitHub Flow uses a single main branch. All work happens on feature branches that merge via pull requests.

main ──────●──●──●──●──●──●──●──●──●──── (always deployable)
           ↑  ↑  ↑  ↑  ↑  ↑  ↑  ↑  ↑
           PRs from feature branches

QA Implications for GitHub Flow

• Test on PR: Every pull request triggers the full test suite. This is your primary quality gate.
• Main is always deployable: If tests pass on the PR and the PR is merged, main should be safe to deploy at any time
• No stabilization phase: There is no release branch. If something is broken on main, fix it with another PR.
• Simpler environment mapping: Feature branches deploy to preview environments, main deploys to production

When to advocate for GitHub Flow:

• Your team does continuous deployment (deploy multiple times per day)
• You have a single version in production
• Your CI pipeline is fast and reliable enough to gate PRs effectively