Tool Overview

The Branch Name Generator turns your task descriptions into properly formatted Git branch names. You type a description like Fix login crash on iOS or Add user authentication feature, and the tool automatically detects issue IDs, chooses an appropriate prefix, creates a clean slug, and combines everything into a branch name that follows common conventions.

Creating consistent branch names by hand is tedious and error-prone. Different team members might use different formats, include spaces or special characters, or forget prefixes. This leads to messy branch lists that are hard to navigate and understand. The generator ensures every branch name follows the same pattern, making it easier to see what each branch does at a glance.

The tool is designed for developers, team leads, and anyone who creates Git branches regularly. Beginners can learn naming conventions by seeing how descriptions become branch names. Experienced users can quickly generate names without thinking about formatting rules. Teams benefit from consistent naming that makes branch management easier.

Background & Concept Explanation

Git branches let you work on features, fixes, and experiments without affecting the main code. Each branch needs a name that identifies its purpose. Good branch names follow patterns like feature/add-login-button or bugfix/fix-crash-on-startup. These patterns use prefixes to categorize work, issue IDs to link to tracking systems, and slugs to describe the task.

Many teams struggle with branch naming because there are no strict rules, only conventions. Some people use underscores, others use hyphens. Some include issue numbers, others do not. Some use long descriptive names, others prefer short codes. Without a standard, branch lists become confusing and hard to search.

The Branch Name Generator solves this by applying consistent rules automatically. It reads your natural language description, extracts key information, and formats it according to configurable options. It removes stop words, handles special characters, and ensures the result fits Git naming requirements. This means you can focus on describing your task while the tool handles the formatting details.

Key Features

• Natural language input processing. You type a description of your task in plain English, such as Fix login crash on iOS - JIRA-342 or Add user authentication feature. The tool analyzes this text to extract meaningful information without requiring you to structure it in a specific way.
• Automatic issue ID detection. The parser looks for patterns like JIRA-342, TICKET-123, or similar uppercase letters followed by a dash and numbers. When found, it extracts the ID and can include it in the branch name. This helps link branches to issue tracking systems.
• Smart prefix detection. The tool examines your description for keywords that indicate the type of work. Words like fix, bug, crash, or error suggest a bugfix prefix. Words like refactor, cleanup, or improve suggest a refactor prefix. Words like hotfix or urgent suggest a hotfix prefix. Words like docs or documentation suggest a docs prefix. If no keywords match, it defaults to feature.
• Manual prefix override. If automatic detection does not match your needs, you can manually choose a prefix from buttons like feature, bugfix, hotfix, refactor, or docs. Clicking a button sets that prefix, and clicking it again clears the override to return to automatic detection.
• Case style selection. You can choose between kebab-case, which uses hyphens like feature/add-login-button, or snake_case, which uses underscores like feature/add_login_button. The tool applies your choice consistently throughout the branch name.
• Issue ID inclusion toggle. A checkbox lets you control whether detected issue IDs appear in the branch name. When enabled, names might look like bugfix/JIRA-342-fix-login-crash. When disabled, they look like bugfix/fix-login-crash. This gives you flexibility based on team preferences.
• Automatic slug generation. The tool converts your description into a clean slug by removing special characters, converting to lowercase, splitting into words, filtering out stop words like a, an, the, on, at, and joining words with your chosen separator. This creates readable, consistent slugs.
• Length limiting. The generator respects a maximum length setting to keep branch names manageable. If the generated name would exceed this limit, it truncates the slug portion while preserving the prefix and issue ID. This prevents extremely long names that are hard to work with.
• Real-time generation. As soon as you type or change options, the tool generates a new branch name immediately. There is no need to click a button or wait for processing. This gives you instant feedback as you refine your description.
• Sample inputs for quick starts. When the input is empty, the tool shows sample descriptions you can click to load. Examples include Fix login crash on iOS - JIRA-342 and Add user authentication feature. These help you understand what kind of input works well.
• Local storage persistence. The tool saves your input and options to browser storage automatically. When you return to the page, it restores your previous work. This makes it easy to refine branch names over multiple sessions.
• Copy to clipboard functionality. A large copy button appears next to the generated branch name. Clicking it copies the name to your clipboard, and the button briefly shows a checkmark to confirm success. This makes it easy to paste the name into your terminal or Git client.
• AI-powered suggestions. An optional Get suggestions button sends your description to a backend AI service. The service returns an alternative branch name suggestion that might be more concise or follow different conventions. You can use this suggestion or stick with the automatically generated name.
• Clear input action. When you have text in the input field, a clear button appears. Clicking it removes all input and resets the results, letting you start fresh quickly.
• Character count display. The tool shows how many characters you have typed out of the maximum allowed. This helps you stay within limits and understand when your description might be getting too long.

Common Use Cases

A developer starts working on a new feature for user authentication. They type Add user authentication feature into the generator. The tool detects feature as the prefix, creates a slug from the remaining words, and generates feature/add-user-authentication-feature. They copy the name and create the branch.

A team member needs to fix a bug reported in JIRA ticket JIRA-342. They type Fix login crash on iOS - JIRA-342. The tool detects the issue ID, recognizes fix and crash as bug-related keywords, and generates bugfix/JIRA-342-fix-login-crash-ios. They enable the issue ID toggle and copy the name.

A developer wants to refactor payment processing code. They type Refactor payment processing module. The tool detects refactor as a keyword and generates refactor/payment-processing-module. They check the options panel and confirm the prefix is correct before copying.

Someone needs to update documentation. They type Update API documentation. The tool detects docs as a keyword and generates docs/update-api-documentation. They use the copy button to get the name and create the branch in their repository.

How to Use This Tool (Step-by-Step)

1. Open the Branch Name Generator. You will see a large text input area at the top and a results area below.
2. Type a description of your task in the input field. You can include issue IDs, keywords, and natural language. For example, type Fix login crash on iOS - JIRA-342 or Add user authentication feature.
3. Watch the results area below. As soon as you type, the tool generates a branch name automatically. The name appears in a dark code-like box with a copy button next to it.
4. If you want to adjust formatting, click the settings icon in the top right of the input area. An options panel will expand showing format choices, issue ID toggle, and prefix buttons.
5. In the options panel, choose your preferred case style. Click kebab-case for names like feature/add-login-button or snake_case for names like feature/add_login_button. The generated name updates immediately.
6. Decide whether to include issue IDs. Toggle the Include detected ID switch on or off. When on, names include IDs like JIRA-342. When off, names omit them. The name updates to reflect your choice.
7. If automatic prefix detection is wrong, click one of the prefix buttons like bugfix, hotfix, refactor, or docs. The selected prefix appears highlighted, and the branch name updates. Click the same button again to clear the override and return to automatic detection.
8. Review the generated branch name. Check that the prefix matches your work type, the slug is readable, and the overall length is reasonable. If something looks wrong, adjust your description or options.
9. When you are satisfied, click the copy button next to the branch name. The button will briefly show a checkmark to confirm copying succeeded.
10. Open your terminal or Git client, paste the branch name, and create the branch using a command like git checkout -b followed by the pasted name.
11. Optionally, click Get suggestions to see an AI-generated alternative. Wait for the suggestion to appear. If you like it better, click the copy icon next to it. If not, use the original generated name.
12. If you want to start over, click the clear button in the input area or delete all text manually. The results will clear, and you can enter a new description.

Calculations & Logic

The Branch Name Generator processes your input through several steps. First, it trims whitespace from your description. If the input is empty after trimming, it returns a default result with an empty branch name.

Next, it searches for issue IDs using a regular expression that matches uppercase letters followed by a dash and digits, such as JIRA-342 or TICKET-123. If found, it extracts the ID and converts it to uppercase for consistency. The ID is stored separately from the description text.

To determine the prefix, the tool converts your description to lowercase and checks for keyword patterns. It looks for words like fix, bug, crash, error, issue, or broken to suggest bugfix. It looks for refactor, cleanup, or improve to suggest refactor. It looks for hotfix, emergency, or urgent to suggest hotfix. It looks for docs, documentation, or readme to suggest docs. If none match, it defaults to feature. If you set a prefix override, it uses that instead of detection.

To create the slug, the tool removes the detected issue ID from the text, then removes all non-word characters except spaces and hyphens. It converts everything to lowercase and splits the text into words. It filters out stop words like a, an, the, on, at, for, to, in, of, and, with, and from. It then joins the remaining words using your chosen separator, either a hyphen for kebab-case or an underscore for snake_case.

The tool combines the prefix, optional issue ID, and slug into a final branch name. If issue ID inclusion is enabled and an ID was detected, it adds the ID first, followed by the slug. If inclusion is disabled or no ID was found, it uses only the slug. The parts are joined with your chosen separator.

Finally, it checks the total length against the maximum length setting. If the name exceeds the limit, it truncates the slug portion while keeping the prefix and issue ID intact. It also removes any trailing separator to avoid ending with a dash or underscore.

The result object includes the prefix, detected issue ID, slug portion, and the complete fullBranch string. The UI displays the fullBranch string as the suggested name and shows the issue ID separately if one was detected.

For AI suggestions, the tool sends your original input text to a backend service. The service returns a plain text branch name suggestion. The tool validates that the response is a non-empty string before displaying it. If the service fails or returns invalid data, the tool shows an error message or does not display a suggestion.

Tips, Limitations & Best Practices

Write clear, descriptive task descriptions. Include key words that help the tool detect the right prefix and create a meaningful slug. For example, Fix login crash is better than Login problem because it includes fix and crash keywords.

Include issue IDs in your description when you have them. The tool will detect patterns like JIRA-342 or TICKET-123 automatically. You can then choose whether to include them in the final branch name based on your team's preferences.

Use the prefix override buttons when automatic detection gets it wrong. Sometimes the tool might choose feature when you want bugfix, or vice versa. Manual override gives you control while still benefiting from automatic slug generation.

Keep descriptions concise but informative. Very long descriptions create long branch names that are hard to read and type. Aim for enough detail to understand the branch purpose without unnecessary words.

Review the generated name before copying. Check that the prefix matches your work type, the slug makes sense, and the overall format matches your team's conventions. Make adjustments to your description or options if needed.

Use AI suggestions as inspiration, not as the final answer. The AI might suggest alternative phrasings or formats that could work well, but always verify that the suggestion fits your team's naming standards before using it.

Remember that the tool helps with formatting, but you are responsible for creating meaningful descriptions. A well-written description leads to a better branch name, while a vague description might produce a name that does not clearly communicate the branch purpose.

Finally, be consistent with your team. If everyone uses the same tool with the same settings, branch names will be consistent across the project. This makes it easier to navigate branches, understand their purposes, and maintain a clean repository structure.