GitHub flow

GitHub flow is a simple, yet often sufficient, branching strategy. In GitHub flow, there is one master branch that should always be in a deployable state. No unfinished changes are allowed to go onto the master.

If you want to start work on a new feature or bugfix, you create a new topic branch of the master where you commit your work. Only when you are completely done with that work do you merge this branch back to the master. An example commit flow might look like this:

As this is the branching scheme with the least branches involved, this is probably a good strategy to start with.