gitflow is the original set of Git extensions that implements Vincent Driessen’s well-known branching model via a convenient command-line interface. Instead of memorizing the choreography, you run high-level commands like git flow init, git flow feature start/finish, git flow release start/finish, and git flow hotfix to create, merge, and tag branches following a consistent structure. The model separates long-lived master (or main) and develop branches, encourages topic branches for features, and formalizes release and hotfix flows, which helps teams coordinate work and control what reaches production. The scripts enforce naming conventions, guide merges in the right direction, and add version tags to releases so you keep a clean, auditable history. Teams often adopt gitflow to make branching and release management predictable, especially when multiple developers are shipping features and bug fixes in parallel.
Features
- Commands to start, finish, publish, and pull feature branches using git flow feature start/finish/...
- Support for release branches: creating, finishing, and pushing release branches that prepare code for a stable release
- Hotfix branch support: rapidly fixing bugs in production (master) branch and merging back to both master and develop
- Support branches: long-lived support maintenance branches off master for continued patching of older releases
- Easy initialization with git flow init to set up the branch naming conventions and base branches (master, develop etc.)
- Push/pull convenience commands and status operations for feature branches to or from remote repositories