Branch Protection

Branch protection rules enforce code review, status checks, and other requirements before merging to protected branches.

What is Branch Protection?

Branch protection rules prevent direct pushes to important branches, requiring code reviews, status checks, and other conditions before changes can be merged.

Protection Features

Required reviews, Status checks, Signed commits, Linear history, Admin bypass controls.

Common Misconceptions

"Protection slows development" - Prevents costly mistakes
"Main branch only" - Protect release branches too
"Admins should bypass" - Leads to policy violations