Generate Next Release Tag

• This is a GitHub Action that automates the process of creating the next release tag version for your repository. Note: it generates a new release version, but it does not create a new release.
• The action sets an output variable named next_release_tag, which can be used to create the next release.
• It uses the previous release tag and increments it based on the year, month, date, and iteration count.
• The action supports creating release tags based on the template given to the action. Refer to the Templating System section for more information.
• Supports prefix wildcard tag prefixes (e.g., v*) to automatically use the latest tag starting with the prefix. Only prefix-based wildcard matching is supported.
• This action is recommended to be used with softprops/action-gh-release or ncipollo/release-action to create the release.
• The minimum supported Node.js version is v20.

Inputs

github_token: The Github Secret GITHUB_TOKEN or Personal Access Token. This is a required input.

tag_prefix: The prefix to be added to the generated release tag. Check this section for more information.

tag_template: A preconfigured static template based on which the new release tag will be generated. Check this section for more information. This is a required input.

previous_tag: Pass this to override the automatically detected previous tag instead of fetching it. This is an optional input.

Outputs

next_release_tag: This output variable contains the next release version and is set by the action. You can access it via step.<id>.outputs.next_release_tag.

prev_release_tag: Additionally, the action also sets this output variable, which contains the previous release version. You can access it via step.<id>.outputs.prev_release_tag.

Example workflow

name: Create Release

on: push

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout branch
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Generate release tag
        id: generate_release_tag
        uses: amitsingh-007/[email protected]
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          tag_prefix: 'v'
          tag_template: 'yyyy.mm.dd.i'

      - name: Create Release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
        with:
          name: Release ${{ steps.generate_release_tag.outputs.next_release_tag }}
          tag_name: ${{ steps.generate_release_tag.outputs.next_release_tag }}
          token: ${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN}}
          generate_release_notes: true

Templating System

Tag prefix

This action supports a tag prefix which can be wildcard as well and is prepended to the final release tag. This prefix is also used to fetch the last release based on which new release tag is created. It supports following values:

• You cannot pass a value containing tag templates. These are reserved characters. Check this section for more information.
• Pass '' to create the release tag without any prefix.
• Pass any string. This will fetch the latest tag and prepend the specified prefix.
• Pass a prefix with * to use a wildcard. Only a single prefix wildcard is supported (e.g., v-*). This will fetch the latest tag matching the given wildcard, and the resulting tag will be prepended without the wildcard (e.g., v-<tag>).

Tag template

This action supports a flexible templating system with a few constraints. Users must pass the tag_template option in the action, and the action will fill in the corresponding values based on the template to generate a new release tag. The following are the rules and constraints:

• The template represents the final release tag's format without the tag prefix. You must pass the tag prefix separately.
• The allowed template tokens are: yyyy (full year), yy (short year), mm (month), dd (date), i (iteration count).
• Each of these tokens must be combined with a separator to form the template (e.g., yyyy.mm.i).
• Separators cannot be at the beginning or end of the template (e.g., .yy.mm.i. is not allowed).
• A separator can be any string, but it cannot contain the above-mentioned tokens.
• Only a single kind of separator is allowed in the string (e.g., yy-mm-dd.i is not allowed).
• The iteration count resets to 01 when any of the year, month, or date is changed between the last release and the current release.
• The final generated release tag will be in the format: <tag_prefix><filled-in tag_template> (e.g., if the tag_prefix is v and the tag_template is yyyy.mm.dd.i, then the second release on June 21, 2024, will be v2024.06.21.02).