Git is an awesome version control system. For the uninitiated it might seem daunting at first, but with time it becomes indispensable. When you're working on a project by yourself, it's easy to keep track of things on Github. However, with time issues start cropping up when your project grows and you have a team of developers. Teams in such situations need an efficient way to work together. This aticle on Github Flow is a great read on the topic. It describes, in my opinion, an organized workflow that allows for systematic collaboration and code review on projects. Here are my notes from the article:

1. Anything on master can be deployed

If anything is on the master branch, it's ready to be deployed. This means anything on master branch should be thoroughly tested and is ready to go to production.

2. Create descriptively named local branch off master.

When working on a new feature, one has to create a descriptively named local branch off master. People usually refer to this branch as a feature branch. Say you're working on a new feature for authentication, you'll typically do something like so:

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# make sure you're on your master branch
git checkout -b authentication

The above is the same as running:

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git branch authentication
git checkout authentication

Using the -b option with git checkout creates the local branch and switches to it at the same time.

3. Push code up

You'll work on this new feature branch, commit to the branch locally and regularly push to the same remote branch on your server. When you're ready to push up to your remote server, you'll enter this command on your terminal:

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git push origin authentication

This will create a new remote branch named authentication on the remote server.

4. Create a pull request

When you need feedback or assitance, or believe you work on the new feature is complete, open a pull request. You'll need to create this pull request from your feature branch to your master branch. When you're done, collaborators can review your commits.

5. Code review and merge

After all reviews have been made and changes effected, you'll want to merge it into your master.

Note that, while the pull request is open, you can still commit and push code up to your remote feature branch. This means any correction can be made while the pull request is open. For example:

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git add your_filename.rb
git commit -m "added extra validations"
git push origin authentication

Continue until the process is complete. When yoy're done, go to your pull request and click on the merge buton to merge it back to master branch.

6. Pull changes

Now on your terminal, you'll switch to your master branch:

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git checkout master

Next, you pull the merged code on Github to your local master branch:

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git pull origin master

7. Deploy

Once it's merged to master, you can deploy.