Receives only bug fixes and minor improvements. Changes to this branch can be released more quickly via patch releases, but must not require any substantial changes to documentation or established application behavior. After changes have been merged to the patch  branch, the patch  branch is merged back to main , and the main  branch is merged to next . In extreme cases, changes to patch  may need to be reimplemented against next .

The patch branch always represents the next possible patch release. Prior to the creation of a staging/X.Y.Z  branch, this is relative to the most recent release. After the creation of a staging/X.Y.Z  branch, this is relative to the staged release (ie: it represents the basis of a possible future "X.Y.[Z+1]"  release).

Receives essentially any changes except huge changes that would reasonably require a full version bump (ie: moving from 1.x all the way to 2.x). Examples of changes that should not  go here include compatibility-breaking migrations away from established frameworks and rewrites of the user interface. After changes have been merged to the main branch, the patch  branch is merged back to main , and the main  branch is merged to next . In extreme cases, changes to patch  may need to be reimplemented against next .

The main branch always represents the next possible minor release. Prior to the creation of a staging/X.Y.Z  branch, this is relative to the most recent release. After the creation of a staging/X.Y.Z  branch, this is relative to the staged release (ie: it represents the basis of a possible future "X.[Y+1].Z"  release).

Receives any changes that are too large in size or effect to be considered for main .

The next branch always represents the next possible major release. Prior to the creation of a staging/X.Y.Z  branch, this is relative to the most recent release. After the creation of a staging/X.Y.Z  branch, this is relative to the staged release (ie: it represents the basis of a possible future "[X+1].Y.Z"  release).

Receives only changes related to release "X.Y.Z". At the time this branch is created, all issues related to that release are already associated with that release in JIRA using the "Fix version/s" field.