Team Git Workflow

Team Git Workflow: Forks, Branches, and Pull Requests

Collaborating on a coding project with a team can be tricky. To prevent conflicts, ensure proper review, and maintain clean code, it’s important to follow a structured Git workflow. Here’s a complete step-by-step guide for team members and team leaders.

1. Initial Setup

Team Leader

• Create a GitHub repository for the project (e.g., birthday-surprise).
• Share the repository URL with your team.
• Optionally, set branch protection rules to ensure main branch can only be updated via Pull Requests.

Team Members

• Fork the repository to your own GitHub account.
• Clone your fork locally:

git clone https://github.com/YourUsername/birthday-surprise.git
cd birthday-surprise

• Add the original repository as upstream:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/Pritom-360/birthday-surprise.git
git remote -v

2. Branch Workflow (Team Members)

• Sync your fork before starting work:

git fetch upstream
git checkout main
git merge upstream/main
git push origin main

• Create a new branch for your task:

git checkout -b feature-login

• Work on your assigned code segment in this branch.

3. Commit and Push Changes

• Check the status of your changes:

git status

• Stage your changes:

git add .

• Commit with a meaningful message:

git commit -m "Added login validation feature"

• Push your branch to your fork:

git push origin feature-login

4. Create Pull Request (PR)

• Go to your fork on GitHub.
• Click Compare & pull request.
• Set the base repo as the main project repository and base branch as main.
• Submit the PR with a descriptive title and notes.

5. Team Leader Workflow

• Open the Pull Request on GitHub.
• Review the code for correctness and clarity.
• Approve & Merge if ready, or request changes if revisions are needed.
• After merging, notify the team to sync their local repositories.

6. Keep Your Branch Up-to-Date

git checkout main
git fetch upstream
git merge upstream/main
git push origin main
git checkout feature-branch
git merge main

7. Best Practices

Team Members

• Work in feature branches only.
• Commit small, clear changes.
• Pull the latest changes before starting work.

Team Leader

• Review PRs carefully before merging.
• Encourage descriptive commit messages.
• Maintain main branch stability.

Following this workflow ensures clean collaboration, prevents code overwrites, and allows the team leader to review and approve changes safely.