Git Branch Name Generator

A common convention is type/description — for example feature/user-auth, bugfix/login-crash, hotfix/payment-null-ref. Using a prefix makes branches easy to scan in a branch list and enables automation (auto-labeling PRs, status dashboards). GitFlow popularized this pattern.

Git allows most characters except spaces, ~, ^, :, ?, *, [, \, and control characters. Dots are allowed but branch names can't start with a dot or end with .lock. Best practice: stick to lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens for maximum compatibility with all tools and shells.

Yes — including the JIRA/GitHub ticket ID (e.g. feature/JIRA-123-add-oauth) links your branch to the issue automatically in most project management tools. GitHub, GitLab, and Linear can auto-link PRs to issues when the branch name contains the issue identifier.

Feature branches (feature/) are for new functionality. Bugfix branches (bugfix/) fix non-critical bugs in development. Hotfix branches (hotfix/) are urgent fixes applied directly to production — they typically branch from main/master rather than develop. This distinction helps teams understand priority and merge targets.

Keep branch names under 60–80 characters. Longer names are hard to read in terminal output, PR titles, and some git UI tools. Focus on the key action: what is changing? Use kebab-case for readability. Avoid abbreviations that are not universally understood by your team.