git-flow

# Git-Flow Branching Skill

Git-flow is a structured branching model that organizes parallel development with dedicated branch types. This skill guides setup, branch operations, and integration with semantic versioning.

## Quick Start

**Branch types:**
- `main` — Production, always deployable
- `develop` — Integration, pre-release
- `feature/*` — New features (from develop)
- `release/*` — Release prep (version bump)
- `hotfix/*` — Production fixes (from main)

**When to use:** Team with multiple concurrent features, explicit dev/prod separation, or semantic versioning.

## Setup: Initialize Git-Flow

### Step 1: Install git-flow (if not installed)

**macOS (Homebrew):**
```bash
brew install git-flow
```

**Linux (apt):**
```bash
sudo apt-get install git-flow
```

**Windows (Git Bash):**
```bash
# Option A: Download installer from github.com/nvie/gitflow
# Option B: Via Chocolatey
choco install gitflow
```

**Verify installation:**
```bash
git flow version
```

### Step 2: Initialize git-flow in your repository

```bash
git flow init
```

You'll be prompted to confirm branch names:
- Production branch (default: `main`)
- Development branch (default: `develop`)
- Feature branch prefix (default: `feature/`)
- Release branch prefix (default: `release/`)
- Hotfix branch prefix (default: `hotfix/`)

Press Enter to accept defaults unless your team has different conventions.

### Step 3: Verify initialization

```bash
# Check branches were created
git branch -a

# Expected output:
# * develop
#   main
```

## Branch Operations: Step-by-Step

### Starting a Feature

```bash
git flow feature start my-feature-name
```

This creates and checks out `feature/my-feature-name` from `develop`.

**What happens:**
- Branch created from `develop`
- You're automatically on the new branch
- Make commits as normal
- Other developers can see the branch and understand its purpose

**Convention:** Use lowercase hyphen-separated names: `feature/user-authentication`, `feature/payment-integr