Conventional Branch

Create branch names that are easy to scan, easy to sort, and easy to align with Conventional Commits.

When to Use

• Starting a new task and no branch exists yet
• Renaming or validating a branch before pushing it
• Aligning branch naming with a team convention such as feature/... or fix/...
• Mapping a work item to a predictable branch slug before parallel work begins

When NOT to Use

Branch Shape

<type>/<description>

Allowed types

main, master, and develop remain reserved trunk branches. Do not treat them as valid topic branch names in this workflow.

Naming Rules

• Lowercase only
• Use letters, digits, and hyphens in normal descriptions
• Allow dots only for release versions such as release/v1.2.0
• No spaces, underscores, or special characters
• No consecutive hyphens or dots
• No -. or .-
• No leading or trailing hyphen or dot in the description

Valid examples

feature/add-login-page
feat/issue-123-add-login
fix/fix-header-overflow
hotfix/security-patch
release/v1.2.0
docs/update-docs-links

Workflow

1. Decide the branch type

Choose the type from the actual work:

• new capability -> feature
• defect correction -> fix
• urgent production repair -> hotfix
• release prep -> release
• documentation-only change -> docs
• tooling or config cleanup -> chore

If the user did not specify a type, default to feature unless the task is clearly a fix or release action.

2. Normalize the description

Turn the work summary into a short kebab-case slug:

1. keep 2-5 meaningful words
2. include an issue number only when it helps disambiguate
3. remove filler words
4. replace spaces and underscores with hyphens
5. collapse repeated separators

Examples:

• Add OAuth Login -> add-oauth-login
• issue 123 fix header bug -> issue-123-fix-header-bug
• Release 1.2.0 -> v1.2.0

3. Validate the final name

Use a quick validation pass before creating the branch:

$branch = "feature/add-oauth-login"

if ($branch -cmatch '[A-Z]') { throw "Branch must be lowercase." }
if ($branch -match '[ _]') { throw "Branch cannot contain spaces or underscores." }
if ($branch -match '--|\.\.|-\.|\.-') { throw "Branch has an invalid separator sequence." }
if ($branch -notmatch '^(?:feature|feat|fix|bugfix|hotfix|release|docs|chore)\/[a-z0-9][a-z0-9.-]*[a-z0-9]$') {
  throw "Branch does not match the conventional pattern."
}

$parts = $branch.Split('/', 2)
if ($parts.Count -eq 2) {
  $type = $parts[0]
  $description = $parts[1]
  if ($type -ne 'release' -and $description -match '\.') {
    throw "Dots are only allowed for release branches."
  }
}

For release branches, verify the description still looks like a version rather than a prose sentence.

4. Detect the base branch

Prefer the remote default branch first, then fall back to local trunk branches:

$base = git symbolic-ref --short refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>$null
if ($base) {
  $base = $base -replace '^origin/', ''
} else {
  foreach ($candidate in @('develop', 'main', 'master')) {
    git show-ref --verify --quiet "refs/heads/$candidate"
    if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) {
      $base = $candidate
      break
    }
  }
}

if (-not $base) { throw "Could not determine the base branch." }

5. Create and switch

$branch = "feature/add-oauth-login"

$hasRemoteBase = $false
git ls-remote --exit-code origin "refs/heads/$base" *> $null
if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) {
  $hasRemoteBase = $true
}

git checkout $base
if ($hasRemoteBase) {
  git pull origin $base
}
git checkout -b $branch

Report:

1. the created branch name
2. the detected base branch
3. whether the branch started from a synced remote base or a local fallback
4. the follow-up push command: git push -u origin <branch>

Relationship to Conventional Commits

Keep the branch type aligned with the likely commit prefix when practical:

Verification

• The branch name matches the allowed type/description format
• The slug is lowercase kebab-case (or release version form)
• Dots only appear in release branch descriptions
• The base branch was detected before checkout
• The final branch name describes the work without filler

See Also

• commit-workflow - align later commit messages with the branch intent
• using-git-worktrees - isolate multiple topic branches in parallel