Fine grained default branch: default PR/clone/template branch

[DanielYang59]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

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Hi there,

I tried to search existing discussion and explored settings but haven't found any match so far.

Our use case is we have a template repo using gitflow model (main to be used as template by others, and a develop where should we merge commits). As far as I know it seems I cannot set a "default template/clone branch" which would be the branch from which people create template, so we have a set main as default otherwise others would create from a potentially unstable default. As you might noticed now the default PR branch would now also be main (should be develop). Wondering if there is settings for this?

I could see from settings:

The default branch is considered the “base” branch in your repository, against which all pull requests and code commits are automatically made, unless you specify a different branch.

But I didn't find any place to "specify a different branch"?

Regards,
Haoyu

[ideepakchauhan7]

Re: Fine grained default branch

Hi @DanielYang59,

GitHub's default branch controls both the PR base and the clone/template branch — there is no way to set them independently today.

Best workaround for your gitflow setup

Set develop as your default branch (Settings → Branches → Default branch).

• New PRs will correctly target develop ✅
• Template users will clone develop instead of main ⚠️

To handle the template issue, add a note in your README.md telling users to click "Use this template" and select main manually, rather than cloning directly.

Alternatively, keep main as default and add a .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md reminding contributors to switch the base branch to develop before opening a PR.

This is a known GitHub limitation — no native solution exists yet.

[Gecko51]

Yeah, GitHub ties the default branch to everything: PR base, clone target, template source. No way to split those today.

For a gitflow setup with templates, the least painful approach I've found is keeping main as default (since that's what template users expect) and then using a branch protection rule + a repo-level PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md to steer PRs toward develop.

You can't auto-change the PR base branch, but you can add a clear note at the top of your PR template:

<!-- 
  Base branch should be `develop`, not `main`.
  Please change the base before submitting.
-->

Another option: use a GitHub Actions workflow that auto-comments on PRs targeting main with a reminder to retarget to develop. Something like:

name: PR base check
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          script: |
            await github.rest.issues.createComment({
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              issue_number: context.issue.number,
              body: 'Heads up: PRs should target \`develop\`, not \`main\`. Please update the base branch.'
            })

Not perfect, but it catches mistakes early. The "specify a different branch" line in the docs is misleading, it just means you can choose which branch is the default, not that you can set different defaults per use case.

If this is a dealbreaker for your workflow, it might be worth opening a feature request in the github/feedback repo. Separate "template branch" vs "PR base branch" settings would be useful for a lot of gitflow setups.

[DanielYang59]

it might be worth opening a feature request in the github/feedback repo.

@Gecko51 I just tried to search but didn't find the github/feedback repo?

I found this docs, so looks like there's no repo for that, and I have to use "product feedback" as "discussion type" (I also didn't find a way to change discussion type as I selected "Question")

If there isn't an existing feedback discussion that you can upvote, you can create a new discussion to share your feedback with GitHub's Product team.

[DanielYang59]

Hi @ideepakchauhan7 @Gecko51 thanks both for the comments and the proposed workaround.

Yes we currently used the "default main" + "reminding developers to target develop" because we assume developers are more familiar with the code base than users. And the auto-comment workflow would be a great plus for us (I accidentally committed to the main branch when we first switched to gitflow)

If this is a dealbreaker for your workflow, it might be worth opening a feature request in the github/feedback repo. Separate "template branch" vs "PR base branch" settings would be useful for a lot of gitflow setups.

Thanks a lot. I wasn't aware of that (thought here is the place for feature request), I would open one there, thanks for the input!

[DanielYang59]

reopened in https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/192229