Lesson 14 / 18

Protecting the Main Branch

Rules that keep main stable by forcing changes through reviewed PRs.

Why protect main

Branch protection rules stop force-pushes and direct commits to main, requiring changes to go through a reviewed PR instead.

Required reviews & status checks

You can require at least one approval and passing CI checks before a PR is even allowed to merge.

Where to configure

Settings → Branches → Add rule — pick the branch pattern (e.g. main) and the requirements to enforce.