Is there possible to use Git Tags as a choice of workflow dispatch's input

[saenyakorn]

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Use Case

Assume that I have GitHub Action deployment workflow using workflow_dispatch for manually deploy my apps. On my project, I properly tag the commit with Semantic Version, such as 1.0.2 (for single-app repo) or [email protected] (for monorepo). I would like to deploy specific app using GitHub Action using tag from Git History

Expectation

I would be great if we have dropdown for workflow dispatch's input like what type: choice can do.

Workaround

Currently, I use type: string (default) to get user-preferred tag from GitHub. Like YAML file below. It works but inconvenient, since user may input a wrong tag name.

name: Release

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      app:
        description: "The app to release. The name should be the same as name in package.json"
        required: true
      version:
        description: "The version to release. The version should be the same as version in package.json. For example, 1.0.0"
        required: true

jobs:
  release:
    name: Deploy

    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          ref: ref/tags/${{ inputs.version }}

[smeruva1]

Hi, I am working on a similar issue. What you are asking is kinda there today. When you run a workflow, the default parameter is show on right hand side as "Branch: Main", click on it, you will see all branches and a tab for Tags. Note I found that tags that were created before the github actions workflow were created are disabled.

[atomiechen]

I think the "Use workflow from" dropdown that you see when manually triggering a workflow refers to the version of the workflow file, not the code to be checked out. The workflow file itself (the .yml or .yaml file) is version-controlled. The actual code that is checked out and used in the workflow is determined by the actions/checkout step in your workflow file, not the "Use workflow from" dropdown.

[brazarb]

I thought that too, but running a workflow with workflow_dispatch and selecting a tag e.g. v1.0.3, the actions/checkout@v3 actually checks out the ${{ github.ref }} which is set to the ref that triggered the workflow, in this case v1.0.3

[Noyabronok]

The problem with this solution is that you're stuck using the workflow yml at time of tag creation

[sureshdevops99]

Is this still open or please share the script if you find the solution. Basically, we need to list the branches/tags names as a drop-down/list to select to trigger the workflow.

[brazarb]

I don't think there's a way to do that... I think if you select the tag from the Use workflow from field when dispatching the workflow, it will checkout the ref for that specific tag not fully tested.

Another option is to have an optional ref field in the inputs, and use the actions/github-script action to get the latest release.

${{ github.ref }} and ${{ github.ref_name }} always seem to be the branch/tag that triggered the workflow, so I think the above comment https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/45871#discussioncomment-6321062 OR the below action could help you.

Something like so:

- uses: actions/github-script@v6
  id: get-release
  with:
    retries: 3
    script: |
      if (${{ startsWith(github.event.inputs.ref, 'v') }}) {
        return github.rest.repos.getReleaseByTag({
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo,
          tag: "${{ github.event.inputs.ref }}"
        })
      } else {
        return github.rest.repos.getReleaseByTag({
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo,
          tag: "${{ github.ref_name }}"
        })
      }
- name: Output Github Release
  if: steps.get-release.outputs.result != ''
  run: echo '${{ steps.get-release.outputs.result }}' | jq -r '.data.tag_name'

alternatively, in case inputs.ref is not specified you can just deploy the latest release.

- uses: actions/github-script@v6
  id: get-release
  with:
    # result-encoding: string
    retries: 3
    script: |
      if (${{ startsWith(github.event.inputs.ref, 'v') }}) {
        return github.rest.repos.getReleaseByTag({
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo,
          tag: "${{ github.event.inputs.ref }}"
        })
      } else {
        return github.rest.repos.getLatestRelease({
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo
        })
      }
- name: Output Github Release
  if: steps.get-release.outputs.result != ''
  run: echo '${{ steps.get-release.outputs.result }}' | jq -r '.data.tag_name'

[Koshalgarg155]

@saenyakorn
are you able to achieve this?

[64J0]

It would be great to have this feature!

[razorRun]

+1

[Shuvoid]

It would be really a nice feature to have!!!

[bwhitehead0]

yes, since we perform release actions against release tags, being able to select the tag instead of the branch would be ideal.

+1

[64J0]

Hey, I'm creating a new custom action to update the options automatically whenever a new tag is created.

• Project repository: https://github.com/FsharpGHActions/git-tag-to-workflow-dispatch
• Action page on the marketplace: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/git-tags-to-workflow-dispatch
• Sample usage: https://github.com/FsharpGHActions/gh-samples/blob/main/.github/workflows/git-tag-to-workflow-dispatch.yml

Any feedback and ideas are welcome 🚀

[PramodKumarYadav]

I am surprised this doesn't exist since its such a common use case to deploy based on a specific tag.

Thinking out loud, GitHub can create a new custom input type called tag that works a bit like dynamic search field. Where if a user clicks on this field, it dynamically presents user last 5 or 10 tags to pick the tag from. And if the user wants to go earlier than that, then they could probably start typing and search for it.

[saenyakorn]

I don't know when but we can now use Tag as a source of workflow_dispatch. Thank you GitHub Team. So, I decided to close this discussion now. Thank you everyone.

[64J0]

Did you need to change something on the workflow yml file?