Tag Release Action

A GitHub Action that finds the most recent commit with a built Docker image in AWS ECR and tags it with a semantic version tag. This is used in the k8s deploy process

What it does

This action searches through your recent commits (up to the last 20) to find the most recent one that has a Docker image built in ECR, then tags that image with your specified release version (e.g., v1.0.0). The action will also preserve any associated dev or RC tags when creating the release manifest.

Usage

name: Release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'

jobs:
  tag-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: bisnow/github-actions-tag-release@main
        with:
          tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
          ECR_REGISTRY: 123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/my-app
          aws-account: bisnow
          aws-region: us-east-1

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
tag	Semantic version tag (e.g., v1.0.0)	Yes	-
ECR_REGISTRY	AWS ECR registry URL	Yes	-
aws-account	AWS account to assume	No	bisnow
aws-region	AWS region where ECR repo is located	No	us-east-1

Outputs

Output	Description
git_sha	Git SHA that was tagged
dev_tag	Dev or RC tag found for the commit

Versioning

This action uses rolling major version tags. You can pin to:

• A specific version: @v3.1.0 (exact, never changes)
• A major version: @v3 (recommended, gets bug fixes and new features)

When a new semantic version tag (e.g., v3.2.0) is pushed, a GitHub Actions workflow automatically updates the corresponding major version tag (v3) to point to the new release.