Branches: test with real data in isolated environments
Blog post from Tinybird
Tinybird has introduced branches in public beta, enabling developers to create isolated environments for testing and developing new features with real production data. Branches can be created via the UI or CLI, allowing for testing against production data by optionally importing the latest partition of each data source. This feature addresses user feedback by offering a more flexible development process that does not require Docker, and facilitating testing changes without impacting production. Branches are deployed in ephemeral cloud environments and can be used to run integration tests, ingest data, and eventually promote changes to the production environment. Unlike traditional git-based systems, Tinybird branches in the Forward workspace are independent of git, providing a streamlined approach to deploying changes. While they enhance development flexibility, they also introduce cloud dependencies and lack integration with git providers, requiring manual synchronization for those who wish to track changes with git. Branches are available for all Forward workspaces, and users are encouraged to provide feedback to improve the feature.