create-semver-tag

A Forgejo/GitHub Action that inspects commits since the last tag, determines whether a SemVer bump is required using the Conventional Commits standard, and creates and pushes the new tag automatically.

How it works

1. Finds the most recent tag that matches the configured prefix (e.g. v*).

2. Collects every commit between that tag and HEAD (or all commits when no tag exists yet).

3. Classifies each commit message and picks the highest required bump:

   Commit pattern	Bump
   BREAKING CHANGE: footer, or type!:	major
   feat:	minor
   fix:, perf:, revert:	patch
   Anything else (chore:, docs:, …)	(none)

4. If a bump is required, creates the new tag locally and pushes it to origin.

Usage

Forgejo

- uses: jonasclaes/create-semver-tag@v1

GitHub Actions

- uses: jonasclaes/create-semver-tag@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Note: actions/checkout must run with fetch-depth: 0 so that the full tag history is available.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    with:
      fetch-depth: 0

  - uses: jonasclaes/create-semver-tag@v1

Inputs

Input	Description	Default
token	Token used to push the new tag.	forgejo.token || github.token
tag_prefix	Prefix prepended to every version tag.	v
initial_version	Version to use when no previous tag exists.	0.1.0
default_bump	Minimum bump when commits don't mandate one. major | minor | patch | none	none
dry_run	When true, determines the bump and sets outputs but does not create or push a tag.	false

Outputs

Output	Description
tag	The newly created tag (e.g. v1.3.0). Empty when no bump was needed.
previous_tag	The tag that existed before the bump. Empty when there was no previous tag.
type	The bump type applied: major, minor, or patch. Empty when no bump was needed.

Advanced usage

Using the outputs in subsequent steps

- uses: jonasclaes/create-semver-tag@v1
  id: semver

- if: steps.semver.outputs.tag != ''
  run: echo "Released ${{ steps.semver.outputs.tag }} (was ${{ steps.semver.outputs.previous_tag }}, bump type: ${{ steps.semver.outputs.type }})"

Always bump at least patch

- uses: jonasclaes/create-semver-tag@v1
  with:
    default_bump: patch

Custom tag prefix

- uses: jonasclaes/create-semver-tag@v1
  with:
    tag_prefix: "release-"   # produces e.g. release-1.2.3

Start from a specific version on first release

- uses: jonasclaes/create-semver-tag@v1
  with:
    initial_version: "1.0.0"  # first tag will be v1.0.0 (or v1.1.0 / v2.0.0 depending on commits)

License

Apache 2.0