Support a selected set of development branches

[PaulBol]

Feature Description

I'd like to set up a repository like this

1. Branch main is protected and can only be changed through pull requests
2. For new features developers create a branch dev-* and work with it until reviewed and merged
3. No other branches can be created (e.g., main2, my-feature)
4. Features branches dev-* are deleted after merging

With the implementation of #20825 items 1-3 can be achieved with (wildcard) protected branches main, dev-* and *. However, deleting the dev-* won't be possible as the branches are protected. Therefore stale feature branches would accumulate over time.

It would be great if we have the option to protected all branches except ... or to allow deleting protected branches by whitelisted users.

Screenshots

No response

[lunny]

Maybe we need a deletion whitelist?

[PaulBol]

For me that would be a good solution that seems consistent with whitelist approach for pushing and merging.