# Long-lived branch pattern

SonarQube Cloud considers a branch to be long-lived if:

* It is the main branch, or
* Its name matches the long-lived branch name pattern.

All other branches are considered short-lived.

{% hint style="warning" %}
The type of a branch (long-lived or short-lived) is set during its first analysis and cannot be changed afterward.
{% endhint %}

If your project belongs to an organization, its long-lived branch name pattern is by default the pattern set at the organization level. You can change it.

The name pattern is based on a regular expression. For example, the regular expression: *`(branch|release)-.*`* matches any name that begins with the string `branch-` or `release-`.

<details>

<summary>Changing the long-lived branch pattern of your project</summary>

1. Retrieve your project. See [Retrieving projects](/sonarqube-cloud/~/changes/1027/managing-your-projects/retrieving-projects.md) for more details.
2. Go to **Branches**.
3. In the top-right corner, select the edit icon on the right of **Long-lived branches pattern**. The **Detection of long-lived branches** dialog opens as illustrated below.
4. Enter your regular expression.
5. Select **Save**.

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/1senfEOhQt30dPdLwbeW" alt="Detection of a long-lived branch" width="442"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

</details>

<details>

<summary>Resetting the long-lived branch pattern to default</summary>

If your project belongs to an Enterprise plan organization, you may want to reset the long-lived branch to the default set at the organization level. To do so:

1. Retrieve your project. See [Retrieving projects](/sonarqube-cloud/~/changes/1027/managing-your-projects/retrieving-projects.md) for more details.
2. Go to **Branches**.
3. In the top-right corner, select the edit icon on the right of **Long-lived branches pattern**. The **Detection of long-lived branches** dialog opens.
4. Select **Reset to default**.

</details>


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