Description

Implements initial branching strategy and enforcement for the devcontainer template (issue #38): branch naming convention, pre-commit enforcement, Cursor rules for the issue-to-branch workflow, and integration tests.
This provides a reproducible baseline for branch naming that can be extended with branch protection and CI enforcement in follow-up work.

Related Issue(s)

• Closes [FEATURE] Standardize Branching Strategy and Enforcement #38
• Related [FEATURE] Automate and Standardize Repository Setup for Devcontainer Template #37

Type of Change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• Documentation update
• Refactoring (no functional changes)
• Test updates

Changes Made

Branch name enforcement (pre-commit)

• New branch-name hook in pre-commit config enforcing <type>/<issue>-<summary> (e.g. feature/38-standardize-branching-strategy-enforcement).
• Config updated in root .pre-commit-config.yaml and in assets/workspace/.pre-commit-config.yaml so installed workspaces get the same hook.

Cursor rules

• .cursor/rules/branch-naming.mdc: documents topic branch format, branch types (feature, bugfix, hotfix, release, docs, test, refactor), and step-by-step workflow for creating and linking branches via gh issue develop (check linked branch, infer type, short summary, create/checkout, keep in sync).

Integration tests

• test_valid_branch_names_commit_succeeds: creates a valid branch (e.g. feature/123-test-branch), stages a file, runs pre-commit; expects success.
• test_invalid_branch_names_commit_fails: uses invalid names (e.g. featur/123-typo, bugfix/missing-issue-number), runs pre-commit; expects failure and branch-related output.
• Fix: bash command previously used the literal string {branch_name} instead of the Python variable; switched to f-strings so the actual branch name is passed and the branch-name hook is tested correctly.

Testing

• Tests pass locally (just test)
• Manual testing performed (describe below)

Checklist

• My code follows the project's style guidelines
• I have performed a self-review of my code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have updated the documentation accordingly (README.md, CONTRIBUTE.md, etc.)
• I have updated the CHANGELOG.md in the [Unreleased] section
• My changes generate no new warnings or errors
• I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
• New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published

Additional Notes

• Branch protection, signed commits, and CI-based branch naming checks are out of scope for this PR and can be implemented globally from Enterprise account management.