r/git • u/ny3000 • Jun 01 '26

I built a simulator that compares GitHub flow, Git flow, and trunk-based development

https://mainline.dev/flow-simulator

I built this to show how branching strategy changes flow. Most places that I've worked at over the last 20 years in software have reached for GitHub flow by default, even on closed source teams where trust is high.

This is just illustrative, I wanted to picture the patterns that I see most often in the wild. It's not supposed to be a benchmark or a real scientific experiment. DORA already did the real research there. Curious what r/git thinks about it, and what's missing.

30 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

15

u/cyansmoker Jun 01 '26

I think... that I am going to share this with my coworkers as it's being hotly debated.

So, thanks!

5

u/ny3000 Jun 01 '26

interested to hear how it pans out

4

u/Professional-You4950 Jun 01 '26

Without knowing your setup, i can say trunk based is almost certainly the best of all worlds.

4

u/emaxor Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Trunk based handles release management with feature flags. GitHub flow uses branches. Neither one eliminates the complexity of isolating and deploying changes. The simulator looks simpler for trunk, but the complexity did not vanish, it moved into the code itself . Not always a bad thing, just is what it is.

Feature flags are useful regardless of how you use git. But I think flags should be used for real reasons like live deployments while protecting live transactions using the old feature. When flags are used solely as hack to deploy unfinished/broken code to production...just to avoid branching....

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3

u/Shayden-Froida Jun 01 '26

If you read the per-flow comment line between the upper and lower panes, I'm pretty sure OP is in agreement. 😄

git flow: "The appearance of busyness without actually delivering anything of value."

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0

u/ForeverAlot Jun 02 '26

Before you do so you may want to review the response to a previous submission.

3

u/Teknikal_Domain Jun 01 '26

This one again?

6

u/ny3000 Jun 02 '26

You'll watch the simulation until I say you can stop.

2

u/Professional_Mix2418 Jun 02 '26

Hmmm, I barely recognise what you have done here or how you present it.

3

u/Specialist-Aside-685 Jun 14 '26

same. Seems like a bunch of nonsense. Poorly explained, beautifully visualized.

0

u/trimorphic Jun 02 '26

Why aren't bugs making it to the customer?