Here are some snippets from my Git configuration file.
These days, I use a much simpler workflow and configuration since doing more trunk-based development, but in general, I rebase instead of merging by default, and prefer to use fast-forward merges that doesn't create a merge commit.
branch.autosetuprebase = always and pull.rebase = true configure Git to always rebase instead of pull. It does this for all branches, though I might override this for main branches.
pull.ff = only and merge.ff = only prevents creating a merge commit and will prevent the merge if it would create one. If I needed to override this, I could by using the --no-ff option on the command line.
I use checkout.defaultRemote = origin to ensure that the origin remote is used if I have multiple remotes configured, and push.default = upstream to set the default remote to push to.
merge.autoStash allows for running merges on a dirty worktree by automatically creating and re-applying a stash of the changes, and fetch.prune will automatically prune branches on fetch - keeping things tidy.
I also have and use a number of aliases.
Some like pl = pull and ps = push are shorter versions of existing commands, and some like aa = add --all, fixup = commit --fixup and some additional arguments to commands.
I also have some like current-branch = rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD and worktrees = worktree list which add simple additional commands, and some like repush = !git pull --rebase && git push which use execute shell commands to execute more complex commands or combine multiple commands.
I'm an Acquia-certified Drupal Triple Expert with 17 years of experience, an open-source software maintainer and Drupal core contributor, public speaker, live streamer, and host of the Beyond Blocks podcast.