-4. Clone your fork from your Github account to your machine. Follow the instructions provided here: [http://help.github.com/fork-a-repo/](http://help.github.com/fork-a-repo/) to create and use your own tracking fork on github
-5. Commit your changes to your fork. Then go to your github page and create a "Pull request" to notify us to merge your work.
+4. Clone your fork from your GitHub account to your machine.
+Follow the instructions provided here: [http://help.github.com/fork-a-repo/](http://help.github.com/fork-a-repo/) to create and use your own tracking fork on GitHub
+5. Run `bin/composer.phar install` in Friendica's folder.
+6. Commit your changes to your fork.
+Then go to your GitHub page and create a "Pull request" to notify us to merge your work.
+
+Our Git Branches
+----------------
+
+There are two relevant branches in the main repo on GitHub:
+
+1. stable: This branch contains stable releases only.
+2. develop: This branch contains the latest code.
+This is what you want to work with.
+
+Fast-forwarding
+---------------
+
+Fast forwarding is enabled by default in git.
+When you merge with fast-forwarding it does not add a new commit to mark when you've performed the merge and how.
+This means in your commit history you can't know exactly what happened in terms of merges.
+**It's best to turn off fast-forwarding.**
+This is done by running "git merge --no-ff".
+[Here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5519007/how-do-i-make-git-merges-default-be-no-ff-no-commit) is an explanation on how to configure git to turn off fast-forwarding by default.
+You can find some more background reading [here](http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/).
+
+Release branches
+----------------