Karl's Gitflow — A Modern .NET Git Flow Tool

// Why Gitflow

Bring order to your branches

Gitflow gives your team a clear, consistent branching strategy so that features, releases, and hotfixes never step on each other.

🌿

Isolated Features

Every new feature lives on its own branch, keeping develop stable until work is complete and reviewed.

🚀

Controlled Releases

Release branches let you freeze and polish a release without blocking ongoing feature development.

🔥

Rapid Hotfixes

Branch off main directly for emergency fixes and merge back to both main and develop automatically.

🤝

Team-Friendly

A shared, documented workflow means every contributor knows exactly where a change belongs — less confusion, fewer conflicts.

🏷️

Automatic Tagging

Finishing a release or hotfix creates a proper Git tag so your release history is always traceable.

🔄

Long-Term Support

Support branches let you maintain older versions alongside active development without merge chaos.

// Merge Flows

See how every operation flows

Each branch type follows a well-defined merge strategy. Select a flow below to visualise the exact sequence of branches and merges.

A feature branch is created from develop, work is done in isolation, then merged back to develop when complete.

%%{init: {'theme': 'dark', 'themeVariables': {'git0': '#00f5ff', 'git1': '#39ff14', 'gitBranchLabel0': '#000', 'gitBranchLabel1': '#000'}, 'gitGraph': {'mainBranchName': 'develop'}}}%%
gitGraph
   commit id: "Setup project"
   branch feature/my-feature
   checkout feature/my-feature
   commit id: "feat: add logic"
   commit id: "feat: add tests"
   checkout develop
   merge feature/my-feature id: "Merge feature"
   commit id: "Continue develop"

A bugfix branch is created from develop, the bug is fixed, then merged back to develop.

%%{init: {'theme': 'dark', 'themeVariables': {'git0': '#00f5ff', 'git1': '#ff2d78', 'gitBranchLabel0': '#000', 'gitBranchLabel1': '#000'}, 'gitGraph': {'mainBranchName': 'develop'}}}%%
gitGraph
   commit id: "Active development"
   branch bugfix/fix-null-check
   checkout bugfix/fix-null-check
   commit id: "fix: null check"
   checkout develop
   merge bugfix/fix-null-check id: "Merge bugfix"
   commit id: "Continue develop"

A release branch is cut from develop, stabilised, then merged to both main (with a version tag) and back to develop.

%%{init: {'theme': 'dark', 'themeVariables': {'git0': '#00f5ff', 'git1': '#39ff14', 'git2': '#bc13fe', 'gitBranchLabel0': '#000', 'gitBranchLabel1': '#000', 'gitBranchLabel2': '#000'}, 'gitGraph': {'mainBranchName': 'develop'}}}%%
gitGraph
   commit id: "Feature A"
   commit id: "Feature B"
   branch release/1.0.0
   checkout release/1.0.0
   commit id: "Bump version"
   commit id: "Release notes"
   checkout develop
   branch main
   merge release/1.0.0 id: "Release 1.0.0" tag: "v1.0.0"
   checkout develop
   merge release/1.0.0 id: "Back-merge"
   commit id: "Next cycle"

A hotfix branch is created directly from main to address a critical production issue, then merged to both main (with a patch tag) and back to develop.

%%{init: {'theme': 'dark', 'themeVariables': {'git0': '#00f5ff', 'git1': '#39ff14', 'git2': '#ff2d78', 'gitBranchLabel0': '#000', 'gitBranchLabel1': '#000', 'gitBranchLabel2': '#000'}}}%%
gitGraph
   commit id: "Initial commit"
   branch develop
   checkout develop
   commit id: "Development"
   checkout main
   commit id: "v1.0.0" tag: "v1.0.0"
   branch hotfix/1.0.1
   checkout hotfix/1.0.1
   commit id: "fix: critical bug"
   checkout main
   merge hotfix/1.0.1 id: "Hotfix 1.0.1" tag: "v1.0.1"
   checkout develop
   merge hotfix/1.0.1 id: "Back-merge"

// Installation

Up and running in seconds

Karl's Gitflow is available as a .NET global tool, via Homebrew on macOS, and as a Windows installer — choose the method that suits your platform.

Install .NET 10+ SDK

Download from dotnet.microsoft.com if you haven't already.

Install Karl's Gitflow

Run the single install command shown on the right.

Initialize a repository

Navigate to your repo and run git flow init to set up branches.

Start a feature

Create your first isolated feature branch and get to work!

terminal

# Install as a global .NET tool
dotnet tool install -g Karls.Gitflow.Tool

# Initialize Gitflow in your repo
git flow init -d

# Confirm it's working
git flow --version

Install Homebrew

If you don't have Homebrew, install it from brew.sh.

Install Karl's Gitflow

Run the install command shown on the right to tap and install the formula.

Initialize a repository

Navigate to your repo and run git flow init to set up branches.

Start a feature

Create your first isolated feature branch and get to work!

terminal

# Install via Homebrew (macOS)
brew install karl-sjogren/tap/karls-gitflow

# Initialize Gitflow in your repo
git flow init -d

# Confirm it's working
git flow --version

Download the installer

Get the .msi installer from the latest release on GitHub.

Run the installer

Double-click the .msi file and follow the setup wizard. The tool is added to your PATH automatically.

Initialize a repository

Open a terminal, navigate to your repo, and run git flow init to set up branches.

Start a feature

Create your first isolated feature branch and get to work!

PowerShell

# After running the MSI installer,
# open a new terminal and verify the install:
git flow --version

# Initialize Gitflow in your repo
git flow init -d

# Start your first feature
git flow feature start my-feature

// Usage

Every command you need

Karl's Gitflow wraps common Gitflow operations into intuitive sub-commands. Select a branch type below to see its commands.

git flow init

# Interactive setup — prompts for branch names
git flow init

# Use sensible defaults (main / develop)
git flow init -d

# Specify branch names explicitly
git flow init --main main --develop develop

git flow feature

# List all feature branches
git flow feature list

# Start a new feature branch
git flow feature start my-feature

# Finish a feature (merges to develop)
git flow feature finish my-feature

# Auto-detect branch name when already on it
git flow feature finish

# Publish feature to remote
git flow feature publish my-feature

# Track a remote feature branch
git flow feature track my-feature

# Delete a feature branch
git flow feature delete my-feature

git flow bugfix

# List all bugfix branches
git flow bugfix list

# Start a new bugfix branch
git flow bugfix start fix-null-check

# Finish a bugfix (merges to develop)
git flow bugfix finish fix-null-check

# Publish bugfix to remote
git flow bugfix publish fix-null-check

# Track a remote bugfix branch
git flow bugfix track fix-null-check

# Delete a bugfix branch
git flow bugfix delete fix-null-check

git flow release

# Start a release branch
git flow release start 1.0.0

# Finish a release (merges to main + develop, tags)
git flow release finish 1.0.0 -m "Release 1.0.0"

# Skip the tag
git flow release finish 1.0.0 --notag

# Publish release to remote
git flow release publish 1.0.0

# Track a remote release branch
git flow release track 1.0.0

git flow hotfix

# Start a hotfix from main
git flow hotfix start 1.0.1

# Finish a hotfix (merges to main + develop, tags)
git flow hotfix finish 1.0.1 -m "Hotfix 1.0.1"

# Skip back-merge to develop
git flow hotfix finish 1.0.1 --nobackmerge

# Track a remote hotfix branch
git flow hotfix track 1.0.1

git flow config

# List current configuration
git flow config list

# Override feature branch prefix
git flow config set feature feat/

# Override release branch prefix
git flow config set release release/

Branch Type	list	start	finish	publish	track	delete
Feature	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Bugfix	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Release	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Hotfix	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Support	✔	✔	—	✔	✔	✔

// Finish Options

Fine-tune every merge

Append these flags to any finish command to control exactly what happens during the merge.

🔒

`-k / --keep`

Keep the branch alive after finishing instead of deleting it.

⬇️

`-F / --fetch`

Fetch the latest from origin before performing the merge.

⬆️

`-p / --push`

Push the target branch to origin after the merge.

🗜️

`-S / --squash`

Squash all branch commits into a single merge commit.

🏷️

`-m / --message`

Custom tag message for release and hotfix branches.

🚫

`-n / --notag`

Skip creating a Git tag (release & hotfix only).

↩️

`-b / --nobackmerge`

Skip merging back to develop (release & hotfix only).