Create a branch – Abstract

In Abstract, new work starts by creating a branch. You can think of a branch as your working copy of the main branch—what we call the files that act as the source of truth for a project’s finalized designs. A branch is where you can safely explore and edit designs in a project before sharing them with your team through committing.

You can create a branch from the main branch or from another branch. When you create a branch from another branch, we call the original branch the “parent branch” and the new branch the “child branch”. You may choose to branch from a parent branch if you’d like to pick up where someone else left off in their branch.

Creating a branch does not affect the main branch. Commit your changes and go through a review process before you merge any changes to the main branch.

Create a branch from the main branch

To create a branch from the main branch:

Open the Abstract desktop app.
Select the project you’d like to edit.
Select Main from the left side pane.
Select the file you’d like to edit.
Select Edit in Sketch in the top right.
Select Create a Branch.
Enter a branch name that describes the edits you’re planning to make in that branch (e.g. Green version of iOS logo).

If your branch focus changes, you can edit the branch name.

Select Create branch.

Your new branch opens in Sketch. You can make edits and commit them right away.

Create a branch from another branch

To create a child branch from a parent branch:

Open the Abstract desktop app.
Select the project you’d like to edit.
Select Branches from the left side pane.
Select the branch you’d like to branch from.
Click New branch in the top right corner.
Enter a branch name that describes the edits you’re planning to make in that branch (e.g. Green version of iOS logo).
Select Create branch.

Your new branch opens in Sketch. You can make edits and commit them right away.

Create a branch from a commit

To use a previous commit on the main branch or on another branch as the starting point for your new branch:

Open the Abstract desktop app.
Select the project you’d like to edit.
Select Main or a branch from the left side pane.
Select the Commits tab at the top of the page.
Right-click the commit you want to branch from and select Create branch...
Enter a branch name that describes the edits you’re planning to make in that branch.
Select Create branch.

Branch permissions

When you create a branch, you become the branch owner. As branch owner, you can: