Developing from another repository

If an application’s code will be developed in a separate GitHub repository before pushing to a VIP repository, there are a few factors to consider:

• The VIP team may occasionally need to push security/performance related hotfixes to a wpcomvip repository. This is usually done through pull requests for greater visibility. It is important to have a process in place that merges the changes back to the main development repo.
• It is recommended for a development repository to mirror the structure of the wpcomvip repository directly to minimize complexities when pushing/pulling between them. For the same reason, it is recommended to sync all commits as well (instead of doing large batched commits).
• When syncing with pull requests, be sure to review the pull requests in GitHub for automated code scanning comments added by VIP’s automation that may be flagging possible PHPCS issues.
• For external dependencies (e.g. plugins), subtrees are recommended. Private submodules are not supported, and public submodules not controlled by the developer including it are discouraged.