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Create and Manage Workspaces with Headless CMS Branches

In Contentstack Headless CMS, branches create isolated copies of a stack so teams can develop and validate changes without impacting the main (default) branch. A new child branch inherits the stack configuration and content from its source branch at the time of creation, including content types, entries, languages, extensions, releases, and linked workspaces.

Note
  • Only stack owners, admins, and developers can create branches.
  • A branch can be created from the main or from any other branch (for subsequent branches).
  • Only one branch creation operation can run at a time per organization. Additional branch creation requests remain in the queue until the current operation completes. Status is available in the organization’s bulk task queue.

To create a new branch, log in to your Contentstack account and perform the steps given below:

  1. Navigate to CMS through “App Switcher”.
  2. Open your stack and click Settings > Branches.
  3. Click + New Branch.
  4. In Create New Branch, enter:
    • Branch ID: Enter a unique ID (for example, staging or dev).
    • Source Branch: Select the branch that the new branch should inherit from.

      Note For the first child branch, main is typically selected by default.

      The spaces and workspaces linked with the source branch appear in the Workspace setup section.

  5. For each linked workspace, choose one of the following:
    • Link existing workspace: Select this to keep the branch connected to the same workspace as the source branch.
    • Fork and link workspace: Select this to create a new workspace copy for the new branch.
  6. Click Create to initiate the branch creation process.
  7. Switch to the new branch using the branch selector.
  8. Go to Settings > Assets Hub.
  9. Verify linked workspaces:
    • Workspaces linked as-is appear unchanged.
    • Forked workspaces appear as newly linked workspaces (e.g., test_1 if the workspace name before forking was test).

This setup ensures branch-level isolation in the stack and workspace-level isolation in assets when required.