github

github

Git and GitHub discipline for solo and team projects. Core rule: main is always deployable. Every meaningful change lands via a feature branch and PR.

1) Branch Strategy

main                    ← production-ready, protected, never commit directly
  └── development       ← integration branch (optional, for staging)
        └── feature/    ← one branch per feature / fix / refactor
            bugfix/
            chore/

Always create a branch before writing code:

git checkout -b feature/add-email-capture
git checkout -b bugfix/fix-jwt-expiry
git checkout -b chore/update-dependencies

After every core change — commit and push to the branch:

git add src/email-capture.py tests/test_email_capture.py
git commit -m "feat: add ConvertKit email capture integration"
git push origin feature/add-email-capture

2) New Repo Setup (gh CLI)

# Create repo on GitHub from existing local directory
cd /opt/myproject
git init
git add .
git commit -m "chore: initial project scaffold"

# Create GitHub repo (private by default)
gh repo create myorg/myproject --private --source=. --remote=origin --push

# Immediately create development branch
git checkout -b development
git push -u origin development

# Set default branch to development in GitHub
gh repo edit myorg/myproject --default-branch development

# Clone existing repo and set up branch
gh repo clone myorg/myproject /opt/myproject
cd /opt/myproject
git checkout -b feature/my-feature

3) Existing Repo — Before Any Change

# Always start from latest main
git checkout main
git pull origin main

# Create feature branch
git checkout -b feature/ringba-call-tracking

# Work... then push
git push -u origin feature/ringba-call-tracking

Never:

git checkout main
# make changes
git commit -m "add feature"   # ❌ committing to main
git push origin main          # ❌ pushing to main directly

4) Commit Message Convention

<type>: <short description>

Types:
  feat:     new feature
  fix:      bug fix
  chore:    maintenance, deps, config
  refactor: restructure without behavior change
  test:     add or update tests
  docs:     documentation only
  ci:       CI/CD changes