Forking Using GitHub Desktop: A Guide for Small Teams

When working with a small team of 2-5 developers, a forking workflow might not be necessary. This is because everyone can work in feature branches and branch policies can protect the default branch. However, if your team needs to collaborate on code changes, forking can be a valuable tool.

A fork is an independent copy of a repository, created by cloning or copying the original repository. When you fork a repository using GitHub Desktop, the destination repo's permissions, policies, builds, and work items will apply to the pull request (PR). You can create PRs to merge changes in either direction: from fork to upstream, or upstream to fork.

The most common direction is from fork to upstream. This means that you'll be making changes to your forked repository, and then submitting those changes back to the original repository for review and approval. The original repository is often referred to as the upstream repo.

To get started with forking using GitHub Desktop, you'll need to have a basic understanding of Git and Azure DevOps. You can create PRs to merge changes in either direction: from fork to upstream, or upstream to fork.

Here are some key points to keep in mind when working with forks:

* The forking process doesn't transfer any permissions, policies, or build pipelines from the original repo to your fork.

* If you want to merge your codebase changes into the original repo, you must create a pull request (PR) to request review and approval of those changes.

* Changes you make to your fork, such as adding commits or branches, aren't shared with the original repo.

Forks are useful when people want to make experimental, risky, or confidential changes to a codebase, but those changes need to be isolated from the codebase in the original repo. For example, you might want to test new features before merging them into the main codebase.

In Azure DevOps, forks are supported through our Git repository service. You can create and manage forks using the Azure DevOps web interface or GitHub Desktop. To get started, simply clone or fork an existing repository and start making changes.

Forking using GitHub Desktop is a powerful tool that allows you to collaborate on code changes with your team. By understanding how forking works and following best practices, you can use this feature to streamline your development workflow and improve collaboration within your team.

Fork using github desktop