Git & Collaboration - High-Density Standards

Universal standards for version control, branching, and team collaboration.

Priority: P0 (OPERATIONAL)

Universal standards for effective version control, branching strategies, and team collaboration.

📝 Commit Messages (Conventional Commits)

• Format: <type>(<scope>): <description> (e.g., feat(auth): add login validation).
• Types: feat (new feature), fix (bug fix), docs, style, refactor, perf, test, chore.
• Atomic Commits: One commit = One logical change. Avoid "mega-commits".
• Imperative Mood: Use "add feature" instead of "added feature" or "adds feature".

🌿 Branching & History Management

• Naming: Use prefixes: feat/, fix/, hotfix/, refactor/, docs/.
• Branch for Everything: Create a new branch for every task to keep the main branch stable and deployable.
• Main Branch Protection: Never push directly to main or develop. Use Pull Requests.
• Sync Early: "Pull Before You Push" to identify and resolve merge conflicts locally.
• Prefer Rebase: Use git rebase (instead of merge) to keep a linear history when updating local branches from develop or main.
• Interactive Rebase: Use git rebase -i to squash or fixup small, messy commits before pushing to a shared branch.
• No Merge Commits: Avoid "Merge branch 'main' into..." commits in feature branches. Always rebase onto the latest upstream.

🤝 Pull Request (PR) Standards

• Small PRs: Limit to < 300 lines of code for effective review.
• Commit Atomicness: Each commit should represent a single, complete logical change.
• Description: State what changed, why, and how to test. Link issues (Closes #123).
• Self-Review: Review your own code for obvious errors/formatting before requesting peers.
• CI/CD: PRs must pass all automated checks (lint, test, build) before merging.

🛡 Security & Metadata

• No Secrets: Never commit .env, keys, or certificates. Use .gitignore strictly.
• Git Hooks: Use tools like husky or lefthook to enforce standards locally.
• Tags: Use SemVer (vX.Y.Z) for releases. Update CHANGELOG.md accordingly.

📚 References

• Clean Linear History & Rebase Examples