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How do you ship an urgent production hotfix with Git?

Git & SDLC Workflow Intermediate 2–3 Yrs3–5 Yrs Scenario 1 min read

Quick Answer

Branch from the exact commit/tag that's in production (not from main, which may have unreleased changes), make the minimal fix with a test, deploy that branch, then merge or cherry-pick the fix back into main (and any active release branches) so it isn't lost in the next release.

The key thing is to branch from what's actually in production — the release tag — not from main, because main has unreleased work on it and I don't want to accidentally ship that. So I branch off v1.4.0, make the smallest possible fix plus a regression test, and deploy that branch as v1.4.1. Then I merge or cherry-pick the fix back into main and any active release branches so it doesn't get dropped when the next version goes out.

  • git switch -c hotfix/1.4.1 v1.4.0 — start from the production tag.
  • Keep the change tiny and targeted — a hotfix is not the time to refactor.
  • Add a regression test so the bug can't recur.
  • After deploy: merge hotfix/1.4.1 into main and any live release/* branches, tag v1.4.1.
  • The common mistake — fixing on main and deploying main — ships everything else that's landed since the last release.
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