What is a Promotion Branch in Copado?

A Promotion Branch in Copado functions as a pivotal integration point where the contents of a feature branch are combined with the target or destination environment to validate and promote changes through a structured deployment process. This type of branch is crucial for ensuring that the features developed in isolation can be successfully integrated into the main codebase before their final release, thereby maintaining code quality and stability in the production environment.

This branch allows teams to verify that all intended features work together seamlessly, thereby mitigating potential conflicts or issues that may arise during deployment. The Promotion Branch thus serves as a critical step in the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, where tested and approved changes from various feature branches come together for the next stage of development and deployment.

The other options describe functionalities that are not aligned with the primary purpose of a Promotion Branch. For instance, a branch that only tracks completed commits would lack the integration aspect that is fundamental to the promotion process. Similarly, a branch used solely for testing purposes does not encapsulate the combined workflow and deployment aspects that a Promotion Branch entails. Lastly, user management does not pertain to the concept of a Promotion Branch, as it is outside the scope of code integration and deployment practices.