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Branching Strategies

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Three types of branching strategies are currently supported when setting up a release.

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There are various automations around these branching strategies that help manage merges, create pull requests, cut tags etc. See Automations for more information.

Almost Trunk​

Almost Trunk is the simplest strategy and the one that we generally recommend.

For every release, we create a new release branch from the HEAD of the working branch. Release-specific fixes should not be committed to the release branch directly. Instead, you should land the fixes on your working branch, and then cherry-pick them on to the release branch.

Under release settings​

Release with Backmerge​

Release with Backmerge creates a new release branch from the HEAD of the working branch, for every release. Once the release is finalized, two things happen:

  1. The release branch is merged into the backmerge (production) branch
  2. The backmerge branch is "backmerged" into the working branch

Under release settings​

Parallel Working and Release Branch​

Parallel Working and Release does not create a new release branch for every release. Instead, at the start of a release, the working branch is merged into the release branch. Release-specific fixes land on the release branch directly. At the end of the release, the release branch is merged back into the working branch.

Under release settings​

Trunk-based​

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This branching strategy is currently in beta and will be publicly available in mid-2025.

Trunk-based branching strategy releases from a single, long-lived branch that's used for both development and releases. No new branches are created. The HEAD of trunk is simply tagged and a release is started from that point onwards. Additional fixes to the release can be optionally picked into the release.