Rules for branches

Use a branch name of the form ⟨type⟩/⟨topic⟩. Here, ⟨type⟩ refers to the type of contribution as given by the label of the form type: ⟨type⟩ of the pull request associated with the branch.
For the ⟨topic⟩ part of the branch name, use only lowercase Latin letters, Arabic numerals, and ASCII dashes, with the latter also serving as separators of words.

Rules for commits¹

Put only related changes into a single commit.
Use correct spelling for the author name (for example, include all diacritics).
Use Markdown for the entire commit message (subject line and body).
Separate the subject line from the body with a blank line.
Limit the subject line to 58 characters.
Start the subject line with a capital letter.
Do not end the subject line with a period.
Use the imperative mood in the subject line.
Wrap the body at 72 characters.
Use the body to explain the what and why, not the how.
When merging another branch into your branch, use a subject line of the following form:
```
Merge `⟨other-branch⟩` into `⟨your-branch⟩`
```
When merging the branch of a pull request into the master branch, put the title of the pull request into the body of the commit message and use a subject line of the following form:
```
Merge `⟨branch⟩` of pull request #⟨pull-request-number⟩ into `master`
```
Here, ⟨branch⟩ refers to the name of the branch without the GitHub account name component.

Several of these rules have been taken from https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/#seven-rules. ↩