Exactly. For some busy repos I tend to remove local master (and develop) branches altogether. It's less moving parts that way. git branch feature1 origin/m

Exactly. For some busy repos I tend to remove local master (and develop) branches altogether. It's less moving parts that way. git branch feature1 origin/master # create ... git fetch --all git rebase -i origin/master feature1 Also, use emacs's magit as a better ui. Even if you don't use emacs, seriously. It's fantastically easy and fast.