GitHub Workflow

Tower's GitHub Workflow template provides a simple and effective branching strategy based on GitHub Flow, the streamlined workflow popularized by GitHub for their development process. This template focuses on simplicity and continuous deployment, making it an excellent choice for teams that value rapid iteration and frequent releases.

About GitHub Flow

GitHub Flow is a lightweight, branch-based workflow created by Scott Chacon and the GitHub team. The workflow was designed around GitHub's need for continuous deployment while maintaining code quality and collaboration efficiency. Since its introduction, GitHub Flow has become one of the most widely adopted branching strategies, particularly for web applications and projects that deploy frequently.

The name "GitHub Flow" comes from its origins at GitHub, where the company needed a workflow that was simpler than Git-Flow but still provided enough structure for their large engineering team to collaborate effectively. The workflow has since been adopted far beyond GitHub itself and works well regardless of your chosen Git hosting service.

How GitHub Workflow Works

The GitHub Workflow template implements a straightforward branching model with just two types of branches:

Main branch serves as the single source of truth for production-ready code. The main branch should always be deployable, meaning every commit represents a potentially shippable state of your application.

Feature branches are created off the main branch for all new work, whether it's a new feature, bug fix, or any other type of change. Each feature branch focuses on a single change or closely related set of changes.

The workflow follows a simple cycle: create a feature branch, make your changes, open a pull request for discussion and review, merge back to main when ready, and deploy the updated main branch. This simplicity eliminates many of the complexities found in other branching models while maintaining quality through the pull request process.

Key Benefits

The GitHub Workflow approach offers several advantages that make it particularly appealing for modern development teams:

Simplicity means fewer branch types to manage and fewer rules to remember. New team members can understand the entire workflow quickly, reducing onboarding time and the likelihood of workflow mistakes.

Continuous deployment aligns naturally with modern deployment practices. Since main is always deployable, you can deploy at any time without worrying about the branch state or coordinating complex merges.

Fast feedback cycles encourage frequent integration and reduce the size of individual changes. Smaller changes are easier to review, test, and debug if issues arise.

Flexibility allows teams to adapt the basic structure to their needs without breaking the fundamental model. You can add automation, adjust merge requirements, or implement additional quality gates while maintaining the simple branch structure.

When to Choose GitHub Workflow

GitHub Workflow works exceptionally well for teams and projects that prioritize frequent releases and continuous deployment. It's particularly effective when:

• You deploy code multiple times per day or week
• Your team practices continuous integration with automated testing
• You want to minimize the complexity of branch management
• Pull requests are a central part of your code review process
• You're building web applications or services where rollback is straightforward

The workflow is less suitable for projects that require complex release coordination, multiple simultaneous releases, or strict version control where not all changes should immediately become deployable.

Customizing GitHub Workflow

While the basic GitHub Workflow template provides a solid foundation, Tower's implementation allows you to customize it to better fit your team's needs:

Branch naming conventions can be adjusted to match your team's preferences, such as using different prefixes for different types of work (feature/, fix/, docs/, etc.).

Merge strategies can be configured to require merge commits for better traceability or use squash merging for cleaner history.

Additional branch types can be added for special cases like experimental features or documentation-only changes, while maintaining the simple main branch structure.

Integration with CI/CD can be enhanced by configuring automatic deployment triggers and quality gates that align with the continuous deployment philosophy.

Getting Started

When you select the GitHub Workflow template, Tower configures:

• A main base branch that represents your production-ready code
• feature/ topic branches that merge back into main
• Merge strategies that support the continuous deployment model
• Branch protection and quality gates that you can customize

This configuration provides an immediate foundation for GitHub Flow while allowing you to adapt specific settings to match your team's deployment and quality requirements.

Perfect for Continuous Deployment GitHub Workflow excels in environments where you want to ship changes quickly and frequently while maintaining code quality through pull request reviews.

The template's simplicity makes it an excellent starting point for teams transitioning from less structured development processes or those looking to simplify complex workflow systems.