How does Copado utilize a promotion branch during deployment?

Copado uses a promotion branch during deployment as a key part of its version control and release management process. This approach involves consolidating multiple user story feature branches into a single promotion branch to facilitate coordinated deployments. By merging individual feature branches into the promotion branch, teams ensure that all the relevant changes are correctly integrated and prepared for deployment.

This method streamlines the deployment process, as it allows for a consolidated view of what will be deployed, helping to avoid conflicts and ensuring that the deployed version reflects all current features and fixes. It also provides a clean and controlled way to manage releases, making it easier to track changes and ensure quality.

The other options do not accurately represent the purpose of a promotion branch. For instance, merely creating copies of deployment metadata, deleting previous versions of user stories, or linking to external repositories does not capture the fundamental role of the promotion branch in merging and preparing code for deployment.