Fix automatic release creation by creating releases in same workflow run as tags

[Copilot]

GitHub releases were not being created despite tags being pushed successfully. Tags v0.0.6, v0.0.7 existed without corresponding releases.

Root Cause

The auto-tag job pushed tags using GITHUB_TOKEN, which doesn't trigger subsequent workflow runs. The release job expected to run on tag push events, but never executed.

Changes

Consolidated tag creation and release into single job:

• Renamed auto-tag → auto-tag-and-release
• Added release creation step immediately after tag push
• Made release conditional on successful tag creation (if: steps.create_tag.outputs.tag_created == 'true')

Improved tag existence handling:

• Check local tags with git tag -l (not git rev-parse which matches any ref)
• Check remote tags before attempting creation
• Set tag_created output flag to control downstream steps

Version upgrades:

• softprops/action-gh-release@v1 → v2

Workflow

auto-tag-and-release:
  steps:
    - name: Create and push tag
      id: create_tag
      run: |
        # Skip if tag exists locally/remotely
        if git tag -l "$VERSION" | grep -q .; then
          echo "tag_created=false" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          exit 0
        fi
        
        git tag -a $VERSION -m "Release $VERSION"
        git push origin $VERSION
        echo "tag_created=true" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
    
    - name: Create GitHub Release
      if: steps.create_tag.outputs.tag_created == 'true'
      uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>automatically creating a new release isn't working</issue_title>
<issue_description>creation of a new github release is being skipped. But the releases are being tagged - and it appears that they are being tagged multiple times. e.g. we were at v0.0.5, I tried to manually push to 0.0.6 but the yag was already in place, I tried to 0.0.7 this was also in place - I had to uplift to 0.0.8</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes automatically creating a new release isn't working #19

---

💬 We'd love your input! Share your thoughts on Copilot coding agent in our 2 minute survey.