Git + GitHub

How to Set Up Dev and Test Branches for Your Drupal Project in Git 🧪

July 13, 2025

When working on a Drupal site (or any web project), it’s a good idea to separate your code into different branches for each environment:

  • main: production (live site)
  • dev: development (new features)
  • test: testing (before going to production)

This makes it easier to manage releases, test safely, and collaborate with others.

Let’s walk through how to do that using Git and GitHub.

✅ Step 1: Clone Your GitHub Repository

If you haven’t already, clone your Drupal project repository:

git clone https://github.com/your-github-username/your-repo.git
cd your-repo

✅ Step 2: Create and Push the dev and test Branches

You’ll create these two new branches (dev and test) from your current main branch, and push them to GitHub.

# Make sure you're on the main branch
git checkout main

# Create dev branch from main
git checkout -b dev
git push -u origin dev

# Switch back to main to create test branch
git checkout main

# Create test branch from main (or from dev, if preferred)
git checkout -b test
git push -u origin test

Now GitHub will show main, dev, and test as available branches in your repository.

✅ Step 3: Checkout Local Branches That Track the Remote Ones

If you (or someone else) want to clone the repo and start working with all three branches locally, here’s how:

git clone https://github.com/your-github-username/your-repo.git
cd your-repo

# Make sure you have the latest remote branches
git fetch origin

# Checkout each branch locally
git checkout -b main origin/main
git checkout -b dev origin/dev
git checkout -b test origin/test

Each of these local branches will now track their remote versions. You can work on them separately and push changes like this:

git push origin dev
git push origin test

💡 Why This Is a Good Practice for Drupal Projects

  • 🧪 Safe Testing: You can test modules, config changes, or updates on dev or test before affecting your live site.
  • 🔄 Better Collaboration: Developers can work on the dev branch without disturbing main.
  • 🚀 Clean Deployments: Only merge into main when everything is ready for production.
  • 🔁 CI/CD Friendly: You can hook up automated deployments for dev, test, and main environments.

🛡️ Bonus Tip: Protect Your Branches

On GitHub, you can go to Settings > Branches and:

  • Protect main to prevent accidental force-pushes or deletions
  • Require pull requests before merging

This adds an extra layer of safety.

✅ Summary

Here’s a quick cheat sheet:

# Clone your repo
git clone https://github.com/your-github-username/your-repo.git
cd anemia

# Create and push dev & test branches
git checkout main
git checkout -b dev
git push -u origin dev

git checkout main
git checkout -b test
git push -u origin test

Done! 🎉 Your Drupal project now has a clean, organized Git workflow.

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