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GitHub Flow

GitHub Flow support is planned for a future release. This page explains what it is and why you might want to use it.

What is GitHub Flow?​

GitHub Flow is a simpler workflow pattern that eliminates staging branches entirely. You create feature branches, open pull requests, and merge directly to main. Every merge to main triggers a deployment to production.

This pattern works well for teams that practice continuous deployment - shipping small changes frequently rather than batching them into releases. It's also popular with web applications where rolling back is easy and downtime is acceptable for brief periods.

How it would work in PipeCraft​

When GitHub Flow support is added, your configuration would look like:

{
  "flowPattern": "github-flow",
  "branchFlow": ["main"],
  "deployOnMerge": true
}

Instead of the current develop → staging → main progression, you'd have feature branches merging directly to main. Each merge would run tests and deploy to production immediately.

When to use GitHub Flow​

This pattern is ideal when:

  • You deploy multiple times per day
  • Rolling back is fast and easy
  • Your application can tolerate brief outages
  • Your team is comfortable with continuous deployment
  • You don't need a staging environment for integration testing

When to stick with trunk flow​

The current trunk-based flow is better when:

  • You need a staging environment for integration testing
  • Multiple teams need to coordinate releases
  • You have scheduled release windows
  • Rollbacks are complex or risky
  • You want a buffer between code and production

Timeline​

GitHub Flow is on the roadmap but hasn't been scheduled yet. If this workflow would be valuable for your team, let us know on GitHub Discussions. Community feedback helps prioritize features.