Branching & variants
A branch in Avera is not a copy of files: it's a parallel line of the entire system of record, and every released version stays a living, maintained line. Requirements, hardware design, BOM, risk file, tests, documents: all of it branches together.
Every released version is a living line. Fixes land on the version your units actually run, variants stay explicit, the installed base stays served, and improvements propagate forward instead of forking the record.
Not just software: the whole item graph branches as one, so a variant or a fix is always complete, never a partial copy that drifts.
Branch from exactly what's in the field, fix it, release it, while next-generation work continues untouched on main.
Changes merge back at the level of items and links, with conflicts surfaced for a human decision. The trace survives the merge.
A baseline cites a moment on the timeline. It can never drift, because the timeline can't be rewritten.
Run US and EU variants, product configurations, and parallel generations as branches of one system of record: shared where they're the same, explicit where they differ, and never a second BOM drifting in a spreadsheet.
The US and EU variants share one history; the differences are deliberate, visible, and mergeable.
Complaint fixes on the fielded release, improvements on the next one, both with full traceability, both auditable.