In the previous example, we performed a full workflow to deploy a new feature into production. The following list explains the purposes of the different types of branches in Odoo.sh:

• Production branch: This is the actual instance that is used by the end customer. There is only one production branch, and the new features are intended to merge with this branch. In this branch, the mailing service is active, so your end customer can send and receive emails. Daily backup is also active for this branch.
• Development branches: This type of branch shows all the active development. You can create unlimited development branches, and every new commit in the branch will trigger a new build. The database in this branch is loaded with the demonstration data. After the development is complete, this branch will be moved to the staging branch. The mailing service is not active in these branches.
• Staging branches: This is the intermediate stage in the workflow. A stable development will be moved to the staging branch to be tested with a copy of the production branch. This is a very important step in the development life cycle; it might happen that a feature that works fine in the development branch does not work as expected with the production database. The staging branches give you an opportunity to test the feature with the production database before deploying it in production. If you find any issues with the development in this branch, you can move the branch back to development. The number of the staging branches is based on your Odoo.sh plan. By default, you only have one staging branch, but you can purchase more if you want to.

This is the complete workflow of how new features should be merged into production. In the next recipe, you will see some other options that we can use with these branches.