Creates a new GitHub release whenever a tag is pushed.

The following basic workflow will create a release whenever any tag is pushed that matches the version_regex.

name: Release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+"

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Create GitHub release
        uses: Roang-zero1/github-create-release-action@v2
        with:
          version_regex: ^v[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

If only certain tags should create releases or some releases should be created as pre-release you can set regular expression to achieve this. These regular expression are evaluated with GNU grep, so these regular expressions need to be compatible with it. Regular expressions containing \ need them to be escaped with \\.

• version_regex Regular expression to verify that the version is in a correct format. Defaults to .* (accept everything).
• prerelease_regex Any version matching this regular expression will be marked as pre-release. Disabled by default.

- name: Create GitHub release
  uses: Roang-zero1/github-create-release-action@v2
  with:
    version_regex: ^v[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+
    prerelease_regex: "^v2\\.[[:digit:]]+\\.[[:digit:]]+"
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

If you want to create a tag automatically and create the release in the same workflow you can set created_tag to achieve this. This allows you to create a fully automated release in one workflow file (workaround because one workflow/action can not trigger another workflow/action).
The example below uses K-Phoen/semver-release-action to create the tag whenever a pull request is closed, merged, and the head_ref starts with RC. After the tag is created it is passed to the create-release-action via the CREATED_TAG env variable using the output of the semver-release-action.

on:
  pull_request:
    types: closed

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event.pull_request.merged && startsWith(github.head_ref, 'RC')
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Tag and prepare release
        id: tag_and_prepare_release
        uses: K-Phoen/semver-release-action@v1.3.1
        with:
          release_branch: master
          release_strategy: tag
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - name: Upload release notes
        if: steps.tag_and_prepare_release.outputs.tag
        uses: Roang-zero1/github-create-release-action@v2
        with:
          created_tag: ${{ steps.tag_and_prepare_release.outputs.tag }}
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

If you have tag messages that you want to use as a release body you can pass them from the workflow with the release_text parameter.

- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: "Refresh tags"
  id: tag
  run: git fetch --tags --force # Is currently required for v3 due to https://github.com/actions/checkout/issues/290
- uses: ericcornelissen/git-tag-annotation-action@v2
  id: tag-data
- name: Create GitHub release
  uses: Roang-zero1/github-create-release-action@v2
  with:
    version_regex: ^v[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+
    release_text: ${{ steps.tag-data.outputs.git-tag-annotation }}
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

This action makes it possible to extract the release description from a Markdown change log.

By default, the CHANGELOG.md file is searched for a ## (h2) heading matching the tag text.

If it is found the section is passed as body to the release API.

If for example we release the tag v1.0.0 with a CHANGELOG.md as follows:

# Changelog

## v1.0.0

Initial Release

Then the text Initial Release will be passed as body. Markdown restrictions for release bodies still apply.

Regular expression to verify that the version is in a correct format. Defaults to .* (accept everything).

Any version matching this regular expression will be marked as pre-release. Disabled by default.

Create the releases as draft (true|false [default: false]). Existing will not be updated from released to draft.

Controls whether an existing release should be updated with data from the latest push (true|false [default: false]).

Allows to pass an already created tag.

Allows to pass a release title.

File that contains the Markdown formatted change log. Defaults to CHANGELOG.md.

Heading level at which the tag headings exist. Defaults to h2, this parses headings at the markdown level ##.

• GITHUB_TOKEN Provided by GitHub action, does not need to be set.