Git Workflow Strategies for Small Teams

The Problem

Every team argues about Git workflows. The truth: there's no universal best workflow — but there's probably a best one for your team.

Trunk-Based Development

Everyone commits to main (or very short-lived branches):

git checkout -b feature/add-search  # lives < 1 day
git commit -m "feat: add search endpoint"
git push origin feature/add-search
# PR reviewed and merged same day

Best for: Teams with strong CI, feature flags, and high trust.

Requires:

• Comprehensive test suite
• Feature flags for incomplete work
• Fast code reviews (< 4 hours)

Feature Branch Workflow

Longer-lived branches per feature:

git checkout -b feature/user-dashboard
# Work for 2-5 days
git rebase main  # Keep up to date
git push origin feature/user-dashboard
# PR with thorough review

Best for: Most small teams. Balances independence with code quality.

My Recommended Workflow

For teams of 2-10:

1. main — always deployable, protected
2. Feature branches — feature/short-description
3. Squash merge — clean history on main
4. No release branches — deploy from main with tags
5. Hotfix branches — branch from the tag, cherry-pick back

Commit Messages That Help

feat: add user search with pagination
fix: prevent duplicate form submissions
refactor: extract auth middleware into composable
docs: update API endpoint documentation
chore: upgrade dependencies to latest

PR Best Practices

• Keep PRs under 400 lines of diff
• Write a description explaining "why"
• Include screenshots for UI changes
• Self-review before requesting review
• Respond to review comments within 4 hours

The best Git workflow is one your team actually follows consistently.