diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 99d7946..3eca1ed 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -289,6 +289,10 @@ package version.
 If you do not have a workflow that releases based on tags,
 you can manually set the version input.
 
+Setting this input to either `null`, `"scm"` or `"dev"` will result in a
+scm release, where the generated rockspec's source URL
+is the repository's URL.
+
 The following is an example for a basic workflow that runs daily at 00:00,
 sets the package version to `0.0.<number_of_commits>`, and publishes to LuaRocks
 if there have been any commits in the last 24 hours:
diff --git a/action.yml b/action.yml
index 4b1d3ee..2dec33a 100644
--- a/action.yml
+++ b/action.yml
@@ -11,8 +11,10 @@ inputs:
     required: true
     default: ${{ github.event.repository.name }}
   version:
-    description: "The version of your package. By default, the git tag is used."
-    required: true
+    description: |
+      The version of your package. Uses the git tag by default (if one exists).
+      Can also be set to `null`, `"scm"` or `"dev"` to publish a development rockspec.
+    required: false
     default: ${{ github.ref_name }}
   dependencies:
     description: "List of LuaRocks dependencies."
diff --git a/bin/luarocks-tag-release-action.lua b/bin/luarocks-tag-release-action.lua
index 1ef75b6..465cb25 100644
--- a/bin/luarocks-tag-release-action.lua
+++ b/bin/luarocks-tag-release-action.lua
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ local is_pull_request = getenv_or_empty('GITHUB_EVENT_NAME') == 'pull_request'
 local license_input = os.getenv('INPUT_LICENSE')
 local template_input = os.getenv('INPUT_TEMPLATE')
 local package_name = getenv_or_err('INPUT_NAME')
-local package_version = is_pull_request and '0.0.0' or getenv_or_err('INPUT_VERSION')
+---@type string | nil
+local package_version = is_pull_request and '0.0.0' or os.getenv('INPUT_VERSION')
 
 local interpreters_input = os.getenv('INPUT_TEST_INTERPRETERS')
 local test_interpreters = Parser.parse_interpreter_input(interpreters_input)
diff --git a/lua/luarocks-tag-release.lua b/lua/luarocks-tag-release.lua
index 4ac9eb5..8c8e1cc 100755
--- a/lua/luarocks-tag-release.lua
+++ b/lua/luarocks-tag-release.lua
@@ -24,12 +24,12 @@
 ---@field is_debug boolean Whether to enable debug logging
 
 ---@param package_name string The name of the LuaRocks package.
----@param package_version string The version of the LuaRocks package.
+---@param package_version string | nil The version of the LuaRocks package.
 ---@param specrev string the version of the rockspec
 ---@param args Args
 local function luarocks_tag_release(package_name, package_version, specrev, args)
-  -- version in format 3.0 must follow the format '[%w.]+-[%d]+'
-  local modrev = string.gsub(package_version, 'v', '')
+  -- version in format 3.0 must follow the format '[%w.]+-[%d]+' or be 'dev' or 'scm'
+  local modrev = package_version and package_version ~= 'dev' and string.gsub(package_version, 'v', '') or 'scm'
 
   local rockspec_file_path = package_name:lower() .. '-' .. modrev .. '-' .. specrev .. '.rockspec'
 
diff --git a/resources/rockspec.template b/resources/rockspec.template
index 9d1acd7..3fd87a9 100644
--- a/resources/rockspec.template
+++ b/resources/rockspec.template
@@ -25,6 +25,12 @@ source = {
   dir = '$repo_name-' .. '$archive_dir_suffix',
 }
 
+if modrev == 'scm' or modrev == 'dev' then
+  source = {
+    url = repo_url:gsub('https', 'git')
+  }
+end
+
 build = {
   type = 'builtin',
   copy_directories = $copy_directories,