Branching, Pull Requests, and CI

Free e-book — download the complete 456-page PDF at no cost.

Stop fearing merges, rebases, and "detached HEAD".

Many developers learn Git one panicked search at a time: a command copied here, a conflict "fixed" there, a force push that quietly erased a teammate's work. Git is actually built on a few simple ideas — snapshots, pointers, and a history you can always inspect. Once you understand them, every command makes sense. GitHub then adds the team layer: pull requests, code review, protected branches, and automation with GitHub Actions.

This book takes you from zero to the workflow modern teams use to ship software safely every day.

• 456 pages · 28 chapters + 4 appendices
• Git from scratch: commits, history, and what Git stores under the hood
• Branching, merging, conflict resolution, and rebasing without fear
• Undoing anything safely: restore, reset, revert, and reflog
• GitHub: SSH keys, the gh CLI, issues, projects, pull requests, and code review
• Team workflows: GitHub Flow vs Git Flow vs trunk-based, rulesets, CODEOWNERS, merge queues
• Conventional Commits, Semantic Versioning, releases, and open-source contribution with forks
• CI/CD with GitHub Actions: pipelines, matrices, caching, reusable workflows, secrets, OIDC, deployments
• Supply-chain security, hooks, troubleshooting, and two end-to-end case studies

Table Of Contents

Part I — Git Foundations

• Ch 1 · Why Version Control, and How Git Thinks
• Ch 2 · Installing and Configuring Git
• Ch 3 · Your First Repository: init, add, commit, status, and log
• Ch 4 · Inside Git: Objects, Trees, Commits, and References
• Ch 5 · Exploring History: log, diff, show, and blame

Part II — Branching, Merging, and Rewriting

• Ch 6 · Branches Explained: Cheap, Fast, and Everywhere
• Ch 7 · Merging and Resolving Conflicts
• Ch 8 · Rebasing: Clean, Linear History Done Safely
• Ch 9 · Undoing Things: restore, reset, revert, and reflog
• Ch 10 · Power Tools: stash, cherry-pick, tags, bisect, and worktrees

Part III — GitHub and Remote Collaboration

• Ch 11 · Remotes: clone, fetch, pull, and push
• Ch 12 · Getting Started with GitHub: Accounts, SSH Keys, Repositories, and the gh CLI
• Ch 13 · Planning Work on GitHub: Issues, Labels, Milestones, and Projects
• Ch 14 · Pull Requests from First Commit to Merge
• Ch 15 · Code Review That Works: Giving and Receiving Feedback

Part IV — Team Workflows

• Ch 16 · Choosing a Branching Strategy: GitHub Flow, Git Flow, and Trunk-Based Development
• Ch 17 · Protecting Main: Branch Protection, Rulesets, CODEOWNERS, and Merge Queues
• Ch 18 · Commit Conventions, Semantic Versioning, and Release Notes
• Ch 19 · Forks and Open Source Contribution
• Ch 20 · Scaling Repositories: Monorepos, Submodules, Large Files, and Performance

Part V — Continuous Integration with GitHub Actions

• Ch 21 · GitHub Actions Fundamentals: Workflows, Jobs, Steps, and Runners
• Ch 22 · Building a CI Pipeline: Lint, Test, Build, and Matrix Strategies
• Ch 23 · Faster and Reusable Pipelines: Caching, Artifacts, Reusable Workflows, and Composite Actions
• Ch 24 · Secrets, Environments, OIDC, and Deployments
• Ch 25 · Securing the Supply Chain: Dependabot, Code Scanning, Secret Scanning, and Signed Commits

Part VI — Mastery and Case Studies

• Ch 26 · Hooks, Automation, and Troubleshooting Hard Problems
• Ch 27 · Case Study: Quillnote from Solo Project to Team Workflow
• Ch 28 · Case Study: Release Day at Quillnote — From Pull Request to Production

Appendices

• App A · Git and gh Cheat Sheet
• App B · Templates and Reference
• App C · Team Workflow Checklist
• App D · Glossary

WHO IT IS FOR
Beginners who have never used version control, developers who use Git daily but want to stop fearing it, new team members learning pull requests and CI, and tech leads setting up repositories and GitHub Actions for a team or an open-source project.

FORMAT
PDF (A4), 456 pages, English, clickable table of contents and PDF bookmarks. 1st Edition, 2026. Published by thenexbooks.

This book is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GitHub, Inc. or the Git project.

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