k8s-game-2048/docs/BRANCHING.md

Branch Strategy & Deployment Flow

Branch Structure

master (production)
├── staging (staging environment)
└── develop (development environment)
    ├── feature/feature-name
    ├── feature/another-feature
    └── hotfix/urgent-fix

Deployment Flow

🟢 Development Environment

• Branch: develop
• Domain: ${DEV_DOMAIN}
• Trigger: Push to develop branch
• Auto-deploy: ✅ Yes
• Purpose: Latest development features, may be unstable

🟡 Staging Environment

• Branch: staging
• Domain: ${STAGING_DOMAIN}
• Trigger: Push to staging branch
• Auto-deploy: ✅ Yes
• Purpose: Pre-production testing, stable features

🔴 Production Environment

• Branch: master
• Domain: ${PROD_DOMAIN}
• Trigger: Push to master branch OR GitHub Release
• Auto-deploy: ✅ Yes
• Purpose: Live production environment

Workflow Examples

Adding a New Feature

# 1. Start from develop
git checkout develop
git pull origin develop

# 2. Create feature branch
git checkout -b feature/awesome-new-feature

# 3. Make changes and commit
git add .
git commit -m "feat: add awesome new feature"

# 4. Push and create PR to develop
git push origin feature/awesome-new-feature
# Create PR: feature/awesome-new-feature → develop

Promoting to Staging

# 1. Merge feature to develop (via PR)
# 2. Test in dev environment: ${DEV_DOMAIN}

# 3. Promote to staging
git checkout staging
git pull origin staging
git merge develop
git push origin staging

# 4. Test in staging: ${STAGING_DOMAIN}

Deploying to Production

# 1. After staging testing passes
git checkout master
git pull origin master
git merge staging
git push origin master

# 2. Optionally create a release tag
git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release version 1.0.0"
git push origin v1.0.0

# 3. Production deploys automatically: ${PROD_DOMAIN}

Hotfix Flow

# 1. Create hotfix from master
git checkout master
git pull origin master
git checkout -b hotfix/critical-bug-fix

# 2. Fix the issue
git add .
git commit -m "fix: resolve critical bug"

# 3. Push and create PR to master
git push origin hotfix/critical-bug-fix
# Create PR: hotfix/critical-bug-fix → master

# 4. After merge, also merge back to develop
git checkout develop
git merge master
git push origin develop

CI/CD Pipeline

Development Pipeline (develop branch)

1. ✅ Build Docker image
2. ✅ Push to GHCR with develop-{sha} tag
3. ✅ Deploy to dev namespace
4. ✅ Run basic health checks

Staging Pipeline (staging branch)

1. ✅ Build Docker image
2. ✅ Push to GHCR with staging-{sha} tag
3. ✅ Deploy to staging namespace
4. ✅ Run smoke tests
5. ✅ Health check staging URL

Production Pipeline (master branch)

1. ✅ Build Docker image
2. ✅ Push to GHCR with version tag
3. ✅ Blue-green deployment to production
4. ✅ Gradual traffic shifting (10% → 50% → 100%)
5. ✅ Production health checks
6. ✅ Rollback capability

Environment Configuration

Environment	Namespace	Min Scale	Max Scale	Scale Down Delay
Development	game-2048-dev	0	10	30s
Staging	game-2048-staging	0	20	60s
Production	game-2048-prod	0	50	300s

Monitoring & Alerts

• Development: Basic logging, fast iteration
• Staging: Full monitoring, performance testing
• Production: Full observability, alerting, SLA monitoring

Security

• All images are scanned for vulnerabilities
• Secrets managed via GitHub Secrets
• RBAC configured per namespace
• TLS termination at Kourier gateway
• Auto-TLS via cert-manager and Let's Encrypt