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:
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Open the Abstract desktop app.
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Select the project you’d like to edit.
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Select Main from the left side pane.
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Select the file you’d like to edit.
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Select Edit in Sketch in the top right.
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Select Create a Branch.
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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:
- Track edited files
- Add files
- Delete files
- Archive or delete the branch
- Create and edit collections
- Change branch status