Bump Version

Gets the latest release version and increases it, useful for automatic releases.

Examples

Example workflow to release a new version with auto-incrementing version number

name: Release
on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: Get Version Number
        uses: fwilhe2/bump-version@v2
        id: bump
      - run: echo New Version Number ${{ steps.bump.outputs.newVersion }}
      - name: Create Release
        run: |
          gh release create ${{ steps.bump.outputs.newVersion }} --title "Release ${{ steps.bump.outputs.newVersion }}" --generate-notes
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Update a specific version component

You can select the version component to update. By default, the minor version is updated. Valid values are major, minor, patch.

Example to update the patch version:

- uses: fwilhe2/bump-version@v2
  id: bump
  with:
    component: patch
- run: echo ${{ steps.bump.outputs.newVersion }}

Configure version component via workflow_dispatch

If you want to select a version number component to update when triggering a release via workflow_dispatch, you might want to use inputs as in this example.

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      component:
        description: 'Version component to increment'
        required: true
        default: 'patch'
jobs:
  release:
    name: Create Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: Get Version Number
        uses: fwilhe2/bump-version@v2
        id: bump
        with:
          component: ${{ github.event.inputs.component }}

Private repositories and GitHub Enterprise Server

The action reads the latest release through the GitHub API. It uses ${{ github.token }} by default, which is enough for private repositories as long as the job grants contents: read. Pass a different token via the token input if you need to.

- uses: fwilhe2/bump-version@v2
  id: bump
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.MY_TOKEN }}

The API host is taken from GITHUB_API_URL, so the action works on GitHub Enterprise Server without configuration.

Behaviour

The version number of the latest release is taken as it is, including a v prefix if present, and the requested component is incremented. Components to the right of it are set to zero, so bumping the minor component of v1.2.3 yields v1.3.0.

A pre-release version is bumped by releasing it: the qualifier is dropped and no number is incremented, so 1.0.0-SNAPSHOT and 1.0.0-rc1 both become 1.0.0.

The action fails with an error message when

• the latest release cannot be read, for example because the repository has no release yet or the token is missing,
• the tag of the latest release is not a version number, or
• the version is too short to hold the requested component, for example the patch component of 1.0.

Versioning

Reference the action by its major version branch, @v3, which points at the most recent release of that line and receives compatible changes automatically. Pin a release tag such as @v3.0.0 to stay on an exact version, or a commit sha if you want to be strict about it.

Breaking changes go into a new major version, so @v2 keeps behaving the way it did before the change.

version	notes
@v3	validates version numbers, releases pre-releases such as 1.0.0-SNAPSHOT, authenticates against the API, and fails instead of returning a version it could not bump
@v2	same as @v3, kept for the tags cut during the 2.x line
@v1	last release of the 1.x line, unmaintained

License

This software is released under the MIT License (MIT), see LICENSE for details.