What is a target-branch in Dependabot configuration?

By default, Dependabot opens its pull requests against the repository's default branch (commonly main), but the target-branch option lets you redirect those PRs to a different branch instead — useful for repositories following a workflow where a separate development/staging branch, not the default branch directly, is where ongoing changes should land first.

updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "npm"
    directory: "/"
    target-branch: "develop"
    schedule:
      interval: "weekly"

This matters for teams using a Git branching strategy (like Git Flow) where main represents only released, stable code, and all routine work — including dependency updates — should first land on a develop branch before being promoted through a release process, rather than landing directly on the branch considered production-ready.

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