April 25, 2025

Git Workflow for Solo Developers

Git workflows for teams are well-documented. What about solo developers?

My Setup

Branches:

  • main: Production-ready code
  • dev: Active development
  • Feature branches: For big changes

Commits: Frequent, descriptive. Future me will thank present me.

Tags: Every production release gets a version tag (v1.2.3).

The Workflow

  1. Create feature branch from dev
  2. Work, commit, push
  3. Merge to dev when done
  4. Test on staging
  5. Merge dev to main
  6. Tag release
  7. Deploy

Why Bother with Branches?

Sometimes I'm in the middle of a feature and production breaks. Branches let me switch contexts cleanly.

Commit Messages

Format: [TYPE] Description

Types: FEAT, FIX, REFACTOR, DOCS

Example: [FIX] Correct M-Pesa callback validation

The Benefit

Clear history. Easy rollbacks. Professional habits even when working solo.

When I eventually hire, we'll already have good practices in place.