Try this

Author: jrfnl

.github/workflows/verify-release.yml

@@ -149,19 +149,21 @@ jobs:
 
     steps:
       - name: Retrieve latest release info (including prereleases)
-        id: version
+        id: latest_release
         run: |
           latestRelease="$(gh release list --repo PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer --limit 1 --json tagName --jq '.[0].tagName')"
           echo "TAG=$latestRelease" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 
-      - name: "DEBUG: Show API request failure status"
-        if: ${{ failure() }}
-        run: "echo No release found. Request failed with status ${{ steps.get_latest_release.outputs.status }}"
-
       - name: "DEBUG: Show tag name found in API response"
-        run: "echo ${{ steps.version.outputs.TAG }}"
+        run: "echo ${{ steps.latest_release.outputs.TAG }}"
+
+      # Just get the version number, without alpha/beta/RC.
+      - name: Clean up the version number
+        id: version
+        # yamllint disable-line rule:line-length
+        run: echo "TAG=$(steps.latest_release.outputs.TAG | grep --only-matching --max-count=1 --extended-regexp '\b[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)+')" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
       - name: Setup PHP
         uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2