Docker build-push-action sometimes fails due to missing tag #227
Description
After creating release v1.18.1 (including the tag) via the github releases web interface, the docker/build-push-action@v6 failed with
ERROR: failed to build: tag is needed when pushing to registry
However, the previous releases, e.g. v1.18.0, created in the exact same way, did succeed.
Nothing has changed in the workflow or repo config since releasing v1.18.0, and no relevant changes in the github-workflows repo.
Here's the error:
Run docker/build-push-action@v6
with:
context: .
file: ./Dockerfile
platforms: linux/amd64,linux/arm64
push: true
annotations: manifest:org.opencontainers.image.created=2025-11-10T12:09:10.541Z
manifest:org.opencontainers.image.description=FAIR Data Point Client application for browsing the metadata and administration.
manifest:org.opencontainers.image.licenses=MIT
manifest:org.opencontainers.image.revision=2a9e0a41268d325aab7308d864f461ba5862570c
manifest:org.opencontainers.image.source=https://github.com/FAIRDataTeam/FAIRDataPoint-client
manifest:org.opencontainers.image.title=FAIRDataPoint-client
manifest:org.opencontainers.image.url=https://github.com/FAIRDataTeam/FAIRDataPoint-client
manifest:org.opencontainers.image.version=
provenance: true
sbom: true
load: false
no-cache: false
pull: false
github-token: ***
env:
DOCKER_METADATA_OUTPUT_VERSION:
DOCKER_METADATA_OUTPUT_TAGS:
DOCKER_METADATA_OUTPUT_TAG_NAMES:
DOCKER_METADATA_OUTPUT_LABELS: org.opencontainers.image.created=2025-11-10T12:09:10.541Z
...
Builder info
/usr/bin/docker buildx build --annotation manifest:org.opencontainers.image.created=2025-11-10T12:09:10.541Z --annotation manifest:org.opencontainers.image.description=FAIR Data Point Client application for browsing the metadata and administration. --annotation manifest:org.opencontainers.image.licenses=MIT --annotation manifest:org.opencontainers.image.revision=2a9e0a41268d325aab7308d864f461ba5862570c --annotation manifest:org.opencontainers.image.source=https://github.com/FAIRDataTeam/FAIRDataPoint-client --annotation manifest:org.opencontainers.image.title=FAIRDataPoint-client --annotation manifest:org.opencontainers.image.url=https://github.com/FAIRDataTeam/FAIRDataPoint-client --annotation manifest:org.opencontainers.image.version= --file ./Dockerfile --iidfile /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-l7kDmc/build-iidfile-b033bc43fe.txt --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 --attest type=provenance,builder-id=https://github.com/FAIRDataTeam/FAIRDataPoint-client/actions/runs/19230859046/attempts/2 --attest type=sbom,disabled=false --metadata-file /home/runner/work/_temp/docker-actions-toolkit-l7kDmc/build-metadata-e502067524.json --push .
ERROR: failed to build: tag is needed when pushing to registry
...
Note the empty manifest:org.opencontainers.image.version and DOCKER_METADATA_OUTPUT_VERSION etc.
The underlying problem is with the docker/metadata-action failing, because the ref is empty (see context info section below).
Run docker/metadata-action@v5
Context info
eventName: release
sha: 2a9e0a41268d325aab7308d864f461ba5862570c
ref:
workflow: Publish to Docker Hub
action: meta
actor: dennisvang
runNumber: 97
runId: 19230859046
commitDate: Mon Nov 10 2025 11:56:53 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Processing images input
Processing tags input
Processing flavor input
Warning: No Docker image version has been generated. Check tags input.
Warning: No Docker tag has been generated. Check tags input.
...
Not sure why this is happening. Maybe there was some timing issue, causing the action to run before the tag was created?
Observations:
- Re-running failed jobs did not help.
- After deleting the new release (but keeping the tag), then recreating it with the (now) existing tag, the run finally succeeded.