Update the latest release

.gitignore

@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ __tests__/runner/*
 # but its recommended not to check these in https://github.com/actions/toolkit/blob/master/docs/action-versioning.md#recommendations
 node_modules
 coverage
+.env

action.yml

@@ -1,28 +1,28 @@
 # https://help.github.com/en/articles/metadata-syntax-for-github-actions
-name: "GH Release"
-description: "Github Action for creating Github Releases"
-author: "softprops"
+name: 'GH Release'
+description: 'Github Action for creating Github Releases'
+author: 'softprops'
 inputs:
   body:
-    description: "Note-worthy description of changes in release"
+    description: 'Note-worthy description of changes in release'
     required: false
   body_path:
-    description: "Path to load note-worthy description of changes in release from"
+    description: 'Path to load note-worthy description of changes in release from'
     required: false
   name:
-    description: "Gives the release a custom name. Defaults to tag name"
+    description: 'Gives the release a custom name. Defaults to tag name'
     required: false
   tag_name:
-    description: "Gives a tag name. Defaults to github.ref_name. refs/tags/<name> values are normalized to <name>."
+    description: 'Gives a tag name. Defaults to github.ref_name. refs/tags/<name> values are normalized to <name>.'
     required: false
   draft:
-    description: "Keeps the release as a draft. Defaults to false. When reusing an existing draft release, set this to true to keep it draft; omit it to publish after upload. On immutable-release repositories, use this for prereleases that upload assets and publish the draft later."
+    description: 'Keeps the release as a draft. Defaults to false. When reusing an existing draft release, set this to true to keep it draft; omit it to publish after upload. On immutable-release repositories, use this for prereleases that upload assets and publish the draft later.'
     required: false
   prerelease:
-    description: "Identify the release as a prerelease. Defaults to false"
+    description: 'Identify the release as a prerelease. Defaults to false'
     required: false
   preserve_order:
-    description: "Upload artifacts sequentially in the provided order. This does not control the final display order GitHub uses for release assets."
+    description: 'Upload artifacts sequentially in the provided order. This does not control the final display order GitHub uses for release assets.'
     required: false
   files:
     description: "Newline-delimited list of path globs for asset files to upload. Escape glob metacharacters when matching literal filenames that contain them. `~/...` expands to the runner home directory. On Windows, both \\ and / path separators are accepted. GitHub may normalize raw asset filenames that contain special characters; the action restores the asset label when possible, but the final download name remains GitHub-controlled."
@@ -31,52 +31,55 @@ inputs:
     description: "Base directory to resolve 'files' globs against. Defaults to the workspace root used by the action step."
     required: false
   overwrite_files:
-    description: "Overwrite existing files with the same name. Defaults to true"
+    description: 'Overwrite existing files with the same name. Defaults to true'
     required: false
     default: 'true'
   fail_on_unmatched_files:
-    description: "Fails if any of the `files` globs match nothing. Defaults to false"
+    description: 'Fails if any of the `files` globs match nothing. Defaults to false'
     required: false
   repository:
-    description: "Repository to make releases against, in <owner>/<repo> format"
+    description: 'Repository to make releases against, in <owner>/<repo> format'
     required: false
   token:
-    description: "Authorized GitHub token or PAT. Defaults to github.token when omitted. A non-empty explicit token overrides GITHUB_TOKEN. Passing an empty string treats the token as unset."
+    description: 'Authorized GitHub token or PAT. Defaults to github.token when omitted. A non-empty explicit token overrides GITHUB_TOKEN. Passing an empty string treats the token as unset.'
     required: false
     default: ${{ github.token }}
   target_commitish:
-    description: "Commitish value that determines where the Git tag is created from. Can be any branch or commit SHA. When creating a new tag for an older commit, `github.token` may not have permission to create the ref; use a PAT or another token with sufficient contents permissions if you hit 403 `Resource not accessible by integration`."
+    description: 'Commitish value that determines where the Git tag is created from. Can be any branch or commit SHA. When creating a new tag for an older commit, `github.token` may not have permission to create the ref; use a PAT or another token with sufficient contents permissions if you hit 403 `Resource not accessible by integration`.'
     required: false
   discussion_category_name:
-    description: "If specified, a discussion of the specified category is created and linked to the release. The value must be a category that already exists in the repository. If there is already a discussion linked to the release, this parameter is ignored."
+    description: 'If specified, a discussion of the specified category is created and linked to the release. The value must be a category that already exists in the repository. If there is already a discussion linked to the release, this parameter is ignored.'
     required: false
   generate_release_notes:
-    description: "Whether to automatically generate the name and body for this release. If name is specified, the specified name will be used; otherwise, a name will be automatically generated. If body is specified, the body will be pre-pended to the automatically generated notes."
+    description: 'Whether to automatically generate the name and body for this release. If name is specified, the specified name will be used; otherwise, a name will be automatically generated. If body is specified, the body will be pre-pended to the automatically generated notes.'
     required: false
   previous_tag:
     description: "Optional. When generate_release_notes is enabled, use this tag as GitHub's previous_tag_name comparison base. If omitted, GitHub chooses the comparison base automatically."
     required: false
-    default: ""
+    default: ''
   append_body:
-    description: "Append to existing body instead of overwriting it. Default is false."
+    description: 'Append to existing body instead of overwriting it. Default is false.'
     required: false
   make_latest:
-    description: "Specifies whether this release should be set as the latest release for the repository. Drafts and prereleases cannot be set as latest. Can be `true`, `false`, or `legacy`. Uses GitHub api default if not provided"
+    description: 'Specifies whether this release should be set as the latest release for the repository. Drafts and prereleases cannot be set as latest. Can be `true`, `false`, or `legacy`. Uses GitHub api default if not provided'
+    required: false
+  latest:
+    description: 'Update the latest release. Default is false.'
     required: false
 env:
-  GITHUB_TOKEN: "As provided by Github Actions"
+  GITHUB_TOKEN: 'As provided by Github Actions'
 outputs:
   url:
-    description: "URL to the Release HTML Page"
+    description: 'URL to the Release HTML Page'
   id:
-    description: "Release ID"
+    description: 'Release ID'
   upload_url:
-    description: "URL for uploading assets to the release"
+    description: 'URL for uploading assets to the release'
   assets:
-    description: "JSON array containing information about each uploaded asset, in the format given [here](https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/repos#upload-a-release-asset--code-samples) (minus the `uploader` field)"
+    description: 'JSON array containing information about each uploaded asset, in the format given [here](https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/repos#upload-a-release-asset--code-samples) (minus the `uploader` field)'
 runs:
-  using: "node24"
-  main: "dist/index.js"
+  using: 'node24'
+  main: 'dist/index.js'
 branding:
-  color: "green"
-  icon: "package"
+  color: 'green'
+  icon: 'package'

src/github.ts

@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ type ReleaseMutationParams = {
 };
 
 export interface Releaser {
+  getLatestRelease(params: { owner: string; repo: string }): Promise<{ data: Release }>;
+
   getReleaseByTag(params: { owner: string; repo: string; tag: string }): Promise<{ data: Release }>;
 
   createRelease(params: ReleaseMutationParams): Promise<{ data: Release }>;
@@ -109,6 +111,10 @@ export class GitHubReleaser implements Releaser {
     this.github = github;
   }
 
+  getLatestRelease(params: { owner: string; repo: string }): Promise<{ data: Release }> {
+    return this.github.rest.repos.getLatestRelease(params);
+  }
+
   getReleaseByTag(params: {
     owner: string;
     repo: string;
@@ -506,7 +512,7 @@ export const release = async (
   }
 
   const [owner, repo] = config.github_repository.split('/');
-  const tag =
+  let tag =
     normalizeTagName(config.input_tag_name) ||
     (isTag(config.github_ref) ? config.github_ref.replace('refs/tags/', '') : '');
 
@@ -518,7 +524,15 @@ export const release = async (
     console.log(`📝 Generating release notes using previous tag ${previous_tag_name}`);
   }
   try {
-    const _release: Release | undefined = await findTagFromReleases(releaser, owner, repo, tag);
+    let _release: Release | undefined;
+    if (config.input_latest) {
+      _release = await findLatestRelease(releaser, owner, repo);
+      if (_release !== undefined) {
+        tag = _release.tag_name;
+      }
+    } else {
+      _release = await findTagFromReleases(releaser, owner, repo, tag);
+    }
 
     if (_release === undefined) {
       return await createRelease(
@@ -716,6 +730,31 @@ export const listReleaseAssets = async (
   }
 };
 
+/**
+ * Find the latest release.
+ *
+ * @param releaser - The GitHub API wrapper for release operations
+ * @param owner - The owner of the repository
+ * @param repo - The name of the repository
+ * @returns The release with the given tag name, or undefined if no release with that tag name is found
+ */
+export async function findLatestRelease(
+  releaser: Releaser,
+  owner: string,
+  repo: string,
+): Promise<Release | undefined> {
+  try {
+    const { data: release } = await releaser.getLatestRelease({ owner, repo });
+    return release;
+  } catch (error) {
+    // Release not found (404) or other error - return undefined to allow creation
+    if (error.status === 404) {
+      return undefined;
+    }
+    // Re-throw unexpected errors
+    throw error;
+  }
+}
 /**
  * Finds a release by tag name.
  *

src/index.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+/**
+ * This file is the entrypoint for the action
+ */
+import { run } from './main';
+
+// It calls the actual logic of the action
+run();

src/main.ts

@@ -5,10 +5,15 @@ import { isTag, parseConfig, paths, unmatchedPatterns, uploadUrl } from './util'
 
 import { env } from 'process';
 
-async function run() {
+export async function run() {
   try {
     const config = parseConfig(env);
-    if (!config.input_tag_name && !isTag(config.github_ref) && !config.input_draft) {
+    if (
+      !config.input_latest &&
+      !config.input_tag_name &&
+      !isTag(config.github_ref) &&
+      !config.input_draft
+    ) {
       throw new Error(`⚠️ GitHub Releases requires a tag`);
     }
     if (config.input_files) {
@@ -110,5 +115,3 @@ async function run() {
     setFailed(error.message);
   }
 }
-
-run();

src/util.ts

@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ export interface Config {
   input_previous_tag?: string;
   input_append_body?: boolean;
   input_make_latest: 'true' | 'false' | 'legacy' | undefined;
+  input_latest?: boolean;
 }
 
 export const uploadUrl = (url: string): string => {
@@ -118,6 +119,7 @@ export const parseConfig = (env: Env): Config => {
     input_previous_tag: env.INPUT_PREVIOUS_TAG?.trim() || undefined,
     input_append_body: env.INPUT_APPEND_BODY == 'true',
     input_make_latest: parseMakeLatest(env.INPUT_MAKE_LATEST),
+    input_latest: env.INPUT_LATEST == 'true',
   };
 };