Pattern: Trunk-based development

Integrate into a single shared trunk continuously via short-lived branches and small, atomic commits (~100 lines of change), keeping the trunk always releasable. Each commit is a save-point that can be reverted cleanly; unfinished work hides behind pattern-feature-flags rather than long-lived branches. Small changes are faster to review and safer to ship, which is the same “faster is safer” logic behind pattern-shift-left.

Applied by (backlinks)

Addy Osmani — Agent Skills:

• addy-git-workflow — trunk-based development, atomic commits, commit-as-save-point.
• addy-ci-cd — pipelines that keep the trunk green.

Compound Engineering:

• ce-commit — convention-aware atomic commits; ce-commit-push-pr — short-lived branch → PR.

gstack:

• gstack-ship — atomic commits, short branches, PR flow; filter-squashes WIP checkpoint commits so bisect stays clean.

Superpowers:

• sp-finishing-a-development-branch — short-lived feature branch → merge-or-PR decision menu, with per-choice worktree cleanup keeping the trunk clean.

See Also

• pattern-feature-flags — how in-progress work stays on trunk without shipping.
• artifact-atomic-commit — the unit of integration.
• stage-release — the stage this pattern serves.