---
title: The minimal Git workflow I use in my research
date: 2025-05-10
author: Jie Huang
comment: True
description: A minimal Git workflow for research projects. This guide covers the essential workflow using feature branches, pull requests, and organized codebase management. Perfect for researchers who want to keep their code versioned without getting overwhelmed by complex Git strategies. Learn how to create feature branches for new changes, commit and push your work to GitHub, and merge your changes back to the main branch through pull requests.
---

# The minimal git workflow 

## The whole workflow
```{figure} ../../data/github_workflow/Github-Workflow.png
The git workflow I used in my research [1]. This workflow consists of the following three parts.
```

## Feature branch
```{figure} ../../data/github_workflow/Github-Workflow-1.png
Create a branch. Create a branch `my-feature`  when you need to make a change; Make changes in this branch you just created; then commit them; Push the commits to Github.
```

## Pull request
```{figure} ../../data/github_workflow/Github-Workflow-3.png
Make a pull request. Push the commit to the remote; create a pull request from `my-feature` to `main`; on your local machine, switch to the main, and pull from the remote main.
```

## Handle exceptions
```{figure} ../../data/github_workflow/Github-Workflow-2.png
Handle exceptions.
```

## References

[1] "十分钟学会正确的github工作流，和开源作者们使用同一套流程" YouTube, uploaded by 码农高天, April 13, 2024, https://youtu.be/uj8hjLyEBmU?si=S29XiEkhG3of9y83     
[2] "Introduction to version control with Git/Recording changes" CodeRefinery,  Mar 31, 2025, https://coderefinery.github.io/git-intro/commits/