finishing-a-development-branch

To finalize a completed development branch, you choose one of four integration paths: merge locally, push and create a pull request, keep the branch as-is, or discard the work, followed by executing the corresponding git commands and cleanup steps.

Your options for merging a completed git feature branch are to merge it locally into your main branch, push the branch to a remote repository to open a pull request, keep the branch as-is for further work, or discard the branch entirely.

The standard git workflow for branch cleanup involves applying a four-option protocol that provides concrete git commands to either merge, open a pull request, keep, or discard the development branch, ensuring standardized finalization and automated removal.

Whether to create a pull request or merge locally depends on your team's integration needs; this branch finalization process presents both options alongside keeping or discarding the branch, providing the exact git commands needed for your chosen path.

You should discard a development branch instead of merging it when the completed work is no longer needed or fails to meet integration requirements, using the standardized git cleanup commands provided by the discard option in the workflow.