Create empty branch on GitHub

Question

I want to create a new GitHub branch, called release.

This branch needs to be empty! However, there is an existing branch with x commits

Answer 1

--orphan is good for creating an empty branch locally, however, in order to push it or interact with other branches, you will need a commit.

Creating a new commit on an orphan branch is not a good idea because you won't be able to interact with other branches. I.e.

git checkout --orphan test
git commit --allow-empty -m "init test branch"
git merge master
fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories

Instead, you should prefer creating a new branch from the first commit of master. If the commit is not empty you can add an empty commit before the first one, as explained by @houtanb.