Fork a repository

In Git, you create branches by starting with either the head/trunk or an existing branch. When you do this, your changes become part of the main project repository. If you want to work on a completely separate copy of the project, you may want to consider creating a 'fork'. 

Forking is a way for you to clone a repository at a specific point, and to modify it from there. To fork is just another way of saying clone. Bitbucket Cloud manages the relationship between the original repository and the fork for you. Forking is particularly useful if you want to do some major development work that you may or may not later merge back into the repository.  Here is the basic workflow:

• Create a fork on Bitbucket.

• Clone the forked repository your local system.

• Modify the local repository.

• Commit your changes.

• Push changes back to the remote fork on Bitbucket.

• Create a pull request from the forked repository (source) back to the original (destination).

The final step in the workflow is for the owner of the original repository to merge your changes.

Fork a repository

1. Go to a repository, select the More options () button in the upper-right corner.

2. Select Fork this repository from the dropdown menu.

3. In the Fork dialog, define the options for your fork.

Workspace: This defaults to the logged-in account. If you have the rights to create repositories in more than one workspace, this is a drop-down.

Project: Name of your project. If you have more than one project, you can select a project from the dropdown menu.

Name: This will be the name of the forked repository. You can update this field.

Access level: By default, the system creates your fork with the same access level as the original. So, if the original is public your fork is too. You can change this, making your fork private. An administrator of the original repository can prevent public forks; In this case, then you cannot change the access.

Permissions: By default, your fork inherits the user/group permissions. For example, if 4 accounts have access to the original your fork will give them the same access. Forking a public repo under your account can cause you to go over the limit on your Bitbucket plan. You can avoid the impact to your plan by making your fork private or by not inheriting the users from the original repo.

Advanced settings

Description: Add a description to your fork.

Forking: Choose your forking preference:

• Allow forks—Users can fork the repository and those forks can be public.

• Allow only private forks—Users can fork the repository and those forks will be private.

• No forks—Users can't fork the repository.

3. Select the Fork repository button.
The system creates the fork and opens the repository's Source page.