Branching

Branches are one of Git's most powerful features. A branch is an independent line of development that lets you work on a feature, fix a bug, or experiment — all without touching the stable main codebase. When you are done, you merge the branch back in.

What is a Branch?

Internally, a Git branch is simply a lightweight pointer to a specific commit. Creating a branch costs almost nothing — it is just a new pointer. This is fundamentally different from older version control systems that copied entire directory trees.

HEAD is a special pointer that tells Git which branch you are currently on.

Listing Branches

# List local branches
git branch

# List all branches including remotes
git branch -a

The current branch is highlighted with an asterisk.

Creating a Branch

git branch feature/login

This creates a new branch pointing at the current commit but does not switch to it.

Switching Branches

git switch feature/login

Or, using the older syntax still commonly seen in tutorials:

git checkout feature/login

Creating and Switching in One Step

git switch -c feature/login

This is the most common workflow: create the branch and immediately start working on it.

Making Commits on a Branch

Once you have switched to your new branch, any commits you make are recorded on that branch only. The main branch is unaffected:

# On feature/login
git add login.js
git commit -m "Add login form component"

Deleting a Branch

After a branch has been merged and is no longer needed:

# Safe delete — only works if the branch is merged
git branch -d feature/login

# Force delete an unmerged branch
git branch -D feature/login

Renaming a Branch

git branch -m old-name new-name

A Practical Branching Strategy

A common workflow used by teams is called feature branching:

1. Create a branch for each new feature or bug fix: git switch -c fix/typo-in-header
2. Make commits on the branch until the work is complete
3. Open a pull request for review
4. Merge the branch into main after approval
5. Delete the feature branch

This keeps main always in a deployable state and makes collaboration clean and reviewable.