Title: GitHub flow on the VIP Platform
Author: WordPress VIP Documentation
Published: March 10, 2026

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 1. [Guidebooks](https://docs.wpvip.com/guidebooks/)
 2. [Developer best practices](https://docs.wpvip.com/guidebooks/developer-best-practices/)
 3. GitHub flow on the VIP Platform

#  GitHub flow on the VIP Platform

The infrastructure of the VIP Platform is built to support a “Code moves up; content
moves down” development workflow (e.g. **develop** → **production** for code development).

Development teams should confirm in non-production environments that new code is
error-free and working as expected before the code is deployed to the production
environment.

## GitHub flow on non-production environments

To reduce potential merge conflicts, create a new branch from an existing branch
that deploys to the non-production environment that will be used for testing. The
deploying branch for an environment can be identified in the **Repository Management**
panel of the VIP Dashboard.

[Read more about the **Repository Management** panel](https://docs.wpvip.com/code-deployment/default-deployment/deploying-branches/update/)

Example steps that demonstrate the GitHub flow for developing a new feature on a
non-production environment that has a deploying branch named `staging`:

 1. Git clone the application’s GitHub repository to the user’s local machine.
 2. Switch to the `staging` branch.
 3. Create a local feature branch (e.g. `add/new-feature`).
 4. Develop, test, and commit changes to the local branch.
 5. Push up the changes to a new remote branch.
 6. Create a pull request from the remote `add/new-feature` branch against the `staging`
    branch.
 7. Request a code review from other members of the development team. The pull request
    will also be automatically scanned by the VIP Code Analysis Bot against VIP Coding
    Standards. Respond to all feedback (from peers and the Bot) by making new commits
    until the pull request is approved.
 8. Merge the pull request to the deploying branch and test the new feature on the 
    non-production environment.

[Read more about merging a pull request on GitHub.com](https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/incorporating-changes-from-a-pull-request/merging-a-pull-request)

## GitHub flow on production environments

After code has been successfully tested and approved on a non-production environment,
you can follow these example steps for using the GitHub flow to release a new feature
to a production environment :

 1. Create a pull request from the remote `add/new-feature` branch to the `production`
    branch that deploys to production environment.
 2. Request a code review from other members of the development team. The pull request
    will also be automatically scanned by the VIP Code Analysis Bot against VIP Coding
    Standards. Respond to all feedback (from peers and the Bot) by making new commits
    until the pull request is approved.
 3. Merge to the `production` branch to trigger an automatic deployment to the production
    environment.

[Read more about code deployments on a VIP Platform environment](https://docs.wpvip.com/code-deployment/)

## Rollbacks

If issues occur related to a deployment, GitHub has a one-click option to [“revert” a pull request](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/reverting-a-pull-request).

A faster alternative to reverting a pull request in GitHub is the rollback option
in the VIP Dashboard.

When a rollback is performed, an existing image of the selected, previous code deployment
is deployed to the environment. A rollback only deploys the _image_ of the application
code’s previous state to the environment. The state of the application’s GitHub 
repository commit history and the environment’s database remains unchanged after
a rollback.

For this reason, the code in the deploying branch that caused the issue must be 
fixed, committed, then pushed to the environment as soon as possible to prevent 
the bad code from being re-deployed.

[Read more about rollbacks in the VIP Dashboard](https://docs.wpvip.com/code-deployment/rollbacks/)

Last updated: March 10, 2026

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## Post navigation

 *  [ Previous GitHub pull request flow ](https://docs.wpvip.com/guidebooks/developer-best-practices/github-pull-request-flow/)
 *  [ Next Create a good commit message ](https://docs.wpvip.com/guidebooks/developer-best-practices/create-a-good-commit-message/)