Trunk-based development
Everyone merges small changes into one main branch at least daily, instead of keeping long-lived feature branches.
Branches live hours, not weeks, so merge conflicts stay small and everyone works on nearly the same code. Unfinished work is hidden behind feature flags rather than kept on a branch. It depends on fast automated tests and review; without them, the main branch breaks often.
Related terms
- CI/CD: Continuous integration and continuous delivery: every change is built and tested automatically and can be released at any time.
- Feature flags: Switches in code that turn a feature on or off for some or all users without a new deploy.
- DORA metrics: Research-based measures of software delivery: how fast changes reach production and how often they fail.
