Long-running and topic branches

Because Git merging is a simple three-way merge, teams can keep several long-running branches at different stability levels and merge between them regularly over a long period. A common arrangement keeps only entirely stable, possibly released, code in master, with a parallel develop or next branch used to test stability and to pull in topic branches once they pass all tests; larger projects sometimes add a proposed or pu branch for integrated work not yet ready for next or master. Think of these as work silos where commits graduate to a more stable silo when fully tested. Multiple long-running branches are optional but often helpful on very large or complex projects. Topic branches are useful at any size: a short-lived branch for a single feature or related work that you create, work on, merge, and delete, cheaply enough to do several times a day. Keeping a branch's changes confined to one topic makes context-switching complete and code review easier. Scope: Git. Reviewed October 4, 2026.