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Post-Merge Instructions for Gitflow Branching Setup

Overview

This document outlines the manual steps required after this pull request merges to complete the Gitflow branching infrastructure setup.

Required Manual Steps

1. Create the develop Branch

After this PR is merged to main, create the develop branch:

git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout -b develop
git push -u origin develop

2. Change the Default Branch to develop

  1. Go to: https://github.com/Wootehfook/BoxdBuddies/settings
  2. Click on "Branches" in the left sidebar
  3. Under "Default branch", click the switch/edit icon next to main
  4. Select develop from the dropdown
  5. Click "Update"
  6. Confirm the change

Why? This ensures that:

  • New PRs default to targeting develop instead of main
  • GitHub Copilot and AI coding agents automatically use develop as the base
  • Contributors naturally follow the Gitflow workflow

3. Import the Updated Feature Branch Ruleset

The feature branch ruleset has been updated to include all Conventional Commit branch prefixes. You'll need to re-import it:

  1. Go to: https://github.com/Wootehfook/BoxdBuddies/settings/rules
  2. Find the existing "Development Flexibility (Feature Branches)" ruleset
  3. Delete or disable the old one
  4. Click "New ruleset" → "Import a ruleset"
  5. Upload github-rulesets/feature-branch-ruleset.json
  6. Review and activate

The new ruleset now covers: feature/*, fix/*, chore/*, docs/*, refactor/*, perf/*, test/*, copilot/*, changelog/*

4. (Optional) Install Local Git Hooks

Individual developers can optionally install pre-push hooks to prevent accidental direct pushes to protected branches:

bash scripts/setup-git-hooks.sh

This installs a pre-push hook that blocks pushes to main or develop and reminds developers to use feature branches.

What This PR Provides

Automated Infrastructure

✅ PR Auto-retarget Workflow - Automatically redirects PRs from main to develop ✅ Updated Branch Rulesets - Expanded to cover all Conventional Commit branch types ✅ VSCode Configuration - Git settings, extensions, and editor config ✅ CODEOWNERS - GitHub Copilot AI Code Review assigned as default reviewer ✅ Updated Documentation - Copilot instructions, chatmode, and README with workflow guidance ✅ Dependabot Configuration - All dependency PRs target develop

Developer Experience Enhancements

  • .vscode/settings.json - Git autofetch, formatting, TypeScript settings
  • .vscode/extensions.json - Recommended extensions (Copilot, Prettier, ESLint, GitLens, Git Graph)
  • .github/chatmodes/Custom.chatmode.md - Development-focused Copilot chat mode
  • scripts/setup-git-hooks.sh - Optional local hook installer

Workflow Summary

After completing the manual steps above, the branching workflow will function as follows:

feature/*, fix/*, chore/*, etc.  ──PR──▶  develop  ──PR──▶  main
                                              │
                                    release/* / hotfix/*  ──PR──▶  main
  • Day-to-day development → targets develop
  • Release branches → target main
  • Hotfix branches → target main
  • PR auto-retarget → catches and redirects any main-targeted PRs to develop

Verification Steps

After completing the manual steps:

  1. ✅ Verify develop is the default branch in GitHub settings
  2. ✅ Create a test feature branch and confirm it defaults to targeting develop
  3. ✅ Verify the updated feature branch ruleset is active
  4. ✅ Check that Dependabot PRs target develop

Questions or Issues?

If you encounter any problems during setup, please:

  1. Check the workflow documentation in .github/copilot-instructions.md section 9b
  2. Review the README.md "Git Workflow" section
  3. Open an issue with the workflow label

Note: This PR targets main because develop doesn't exist yet. All future PRs (except releases and hotfixes) should target develop.