Branch
also: branches, feature branch, main branch, branching
A separate line of work in Git. You can make commits on a branch without affecting the main version until you choose to combine them.
A movable, named pointer to a line of commits. New commits on a branch advance only that branch. Work usually happens on feature branches, which are later merged into the main branch, often called main.
Copying a recipe card to experiment with. You try extra chili on the copy. If it's great, you update the original. If not, the original was never touched.
Having an agent work on its own branch keeps your working version safe. If the experiment fails, you delete the branch and main is untouched.
I've created a branch called fix/timezone-bug from main. All my changes are there; main is untouched. Want me to open a pull request?
Create a new branch for this experiment and do all the work there. Don't commit anything to main.
Thinking a branch is a full copy of your files in another folder. It's a separate line of history in the same repository. Switching branches swaps the files in place.