Feature Branch Workflow
DART is using a Feature Branch Workflow.
"The core idea behind the Feature Branch Workflow is that all feature development should take place in a dedicated branch instead of the main branch. This encapsulation makes it easy for multiple developers to work on a particular feature without disturbing the main codebase."
It also means, ideally, that the main branch will never contain broken code. Atlassian has a nice comparison of the various workflows people use.
Branch naming conventions
main
This is the main branch. It should always work.
feature-branch
Your feature branch should have a descriptive name which indicates what bug fix or feature the branch contains. For example, a feature branch for adding a flu forecasting model could be called: flu-model
gh-pages
This branch is used to serve the website dart.ucar.edu. It only has the website content. To make changes to the website, follow the instructions on https://github.com/NCAR/dart-web.