Get previous tag

GitHub Action that gets the latest tag from Git

Input

By default, this action will fail if no tag can be found and no fallback is provided; when set, the fallback tag will be used instead. Keep in mind that when this action is used in a workflow that has no .git directory, it will still fail, and the fallback tag isn't used. It is also accepts a pattern string to query the tags based on it. Pattern to query the tag by this can be semver (v*[0-9].*[0-9].*[0-9]) or a simple monotonically increasing integer (r*) and defaults to * And finally it takes a workingDirectory if you need to look for a tag in an alternative path.

• fallback: 1.0.0
• pattern: v*[0-9].*[0-9].*[0-9]
• workingDirectory: another/path/where/a/git/repo/is/checked/out

Output

This action has two outputs, tag for the found tag, or the fallback. And, timestamp as a UNIX Epoch timestmap for when the tag was created, or when no tag is found, and a fallback tag has be specific is provides the timestamp of action execution.

• tag: 1.2.3
• timestamp: 123

Example

Find more examples in the examples directory.

The following example works together with the WyriHaximus/github-action-next-semvers and WyriHaximus/github-action-create-milestone actions. Where it provides the previous tag from that action so it can supply a set of versions for the next action, which creates a new milestone. (This snippet has been taken from the automatic code generation of wyrihaximus/fake-php-version.)

name: Generate
jobs:
  generate:
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # Required due to the way Git works, without it this action won't be able to find any or the correct tags
      - name: 'Get Previous tag'
        id: previoustag
        uses: "step-security/github-action-get-previous-tag@v2"
        with:
          fallback: 1.0.0 # Optional fallback tag to use when no tag can be found
          #workingDirectory: another/path/where/a/git/repo/is/checked/out # Optional alternative working directory
      - name: 'Get next minor version'
        id: semvers
        uses: "WyriHaximus/github-action-next-semvers@v1"
        with:
          version: ${{ steps.previoustag.outputs.tag }}
      - name: 'Create new milestone'
        id: createmilestone
        uses: "WyriHaximus/github-action-create-milestone@v1"
        with:
          title: ${{ steps.semvers.outputs.patch }}
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"

License

Copyright 2026 Cees-Jan Kiewiet

Copyright 2026 StepSecurity

The action is released under the MIT License.