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Methods to work on git repos housed on remote machines using vim, via SSH

Method 1: sshfs

On your local machine, install sshfs:

sudo apt install sshfs

Then create a directory to house the remote machine and mount it:

mkdir -v LOCAL_MOUNT_POINT
sshfs REMOTE_SSH_CONFIG_NAME:/full/path/to/remote/repo  ./LOCAL_MOUNT_POINT -o idmap=user

changing the LOCAL_MOUNT_POINT and REMOTE_SSH_CONFIG_NAME appropriately.

Advantages:

Works just as you would expect a normal filesystem. In particular, checking out git branches and other git based operations work
Use local vim configuration and setup
Almost no configuration required on the remote end

Disadvantages:

For large file operations, dependent on network speed
When building / testing, need to remember to do it on the remote instead of locally

On your local machine, add the remote git repo as a git remote:

git remote add REMOTE_NAME  REMOTE_SSH_CONFIG_NAME:/full/path/to/remote/repo

Then work locally, and push to the remote when changes are made:

git push REMOTE_NAME BRANCH_NAME

If the remote repo is not a bare repo and the branch is checked out and you still want to push to it, on the remote repo, run:

git config receive.denyCurrentBranch warn

Advantages:

Use local filesystem
Use local development environment
Almost no configuration required on the remote end
No need to install any additional software. Only requires SSH and existing core git feature

Disadvantages:

If the remote is not a bare repo, by default, cannot checkout the branch you will be pushing (but see above on how to allow this)
If remote is not bare and the branch is checked out, may need to run git reset --hard HEAD to see latest changes reflected
When building / testing, need to remember to do it on the remote instead of locally

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Likely need to setup development environment on remote
File editing operations subject to network speed; this may impact development experience depending on network connection