When working in a team environment, directly merging hotfixes into a staging branch can be risky. A safer approach is to create a temporary merge branch, test everything properly, and then create a pull request.
In this guide, we’ll walk through a clean Git workflow for merging a hotfix branch into a staging branch.
Step 1: Fetch Latest Remote Updates
git fetch origin
# (Fetch latest remote branch updates without changing local files)
This command downloads the latest updates from the remote repository (origin) and refreshes your remote tracking branches.
Useful check:
git branch -r
# (View all remote branches)
Step 2: Switch to the Staging Branch
git checkout staging
# (Switch to staging branch)
This moves your working environment to the staging branch.
Verify current branch:
git branch
# (Shows current active branch with *)
Step 3: Pull Latest Staging Changes
git pull origin staging
# (Update local staging branch with latest remote changes)
This ensures your local staging branch is fully synced with the remote repository before merging anything.
Step 4: Create a Merge/Test Branch
git checkout -b merge/feature-tag-deplyoment-to-stg
# (Create new merge/testing branch from current staging branch)
This creates a temporary branch from the current staging branch.
Equivalent to:
git checkout -b merge/feature-tag-deplyoment-to-stg staging
Using a separate merge branch is safer because staging itself remains untouched until testing is completed.
Step 5: Merge the Feature Branch
git merge origin/feature/tag_deplyoment
# (Merge remote hotfix branch into current merge branch)
This merges the remote hotfix branch into your current merge branch.
If conflicts occur, Git will pause the merge and ask you to resolve them manually.
Step 6: Check Merge Status
git status
# (Check merge status and conflicts if any)
This helps verify:
- Merge success
- Conflicted files
- Untracked files
- Pending commits
Step 7: Push Merge Branch to Remote
git push origin merge/feature-tag-deplyoment-to-stg
# (Push merge branch to remote for PR/testing)
Now your branch is available on the remote repository and ready for:
- QA testing
- Pull request creation
- CI/CD validation
- Why This Workflow Is Recommended
This approach helps:
- Keep staging branch clean
- Prevent accidental broken deployments
- Allow safe testing before final merge
- Simplify rollback if needed
- Improve collaboration in teams
Additional Useful Git CommandsView Commit History
git log --oneline --graph --decorate -10
# (View recent commit history in compact format)
Compare Branch Differences
git diff staging
# (See file changes compared to staging branch)
Abort Merge
git merge --abort
# (Cancel current merge process)
Useful when merge conflicts become messy.
Delete Local Branch
git branch -D merge/feature-tag-deplyoment-to-stg
# (Force delete local merge branch)
Delete Remote Branch
git push origin --delete merge/feature-tag-deplyoment-to-stg
# (Delete remote merge branch)
Clean Untracked Files
git clean -fd
# (Remove untracked files and folders)
Be careful — this permanently deletes untracked files.
Check Current Remote URL
git remote -v
# (View configured remote repositories)
Final Recommended Workflow
git fetch origin
git checkout staging
git pull origin staging
git checkout -b merge/feature-tag-deplyoment-to-stg
git merge origin/hotfix/tag_deplyoment
git status
git push origin merge/feature-tag-deplyoment-to-stg
This workflow is clean, safe, and widely used in professional development teams for handling hotfix deployments into staging environments.
