diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index cb80cd236fc..b01f84ee14b 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -213,47 +213,41 @@ deploy_artifacts_to_github:
     - gh release upload --clobber --repo DataDog/dd-trace-java $CI_COMMIT_TAG workspace/dd-java-agent/build/libs/*.jar
     - gh release upload --clobber --repo DataDog/dd-trace-java $CI_COMMIT_TAG workspace/dd-trace-api/build/libs/*.jar
     - gh release upload --clobber --repo DataDog/dd-trace-java $CI_COMMIT_TAG workspace/dd-trace-ot/build/libs/*.jar
-    
-deploy_to_docker_registries:
+
+generate-lib-init-tag-values:
+  tags: ["arch:amd64"]
+  image: registry.ddbuild.io/ci/auto_inject/gitlab:current
   stage: deploy
   rules:
-    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /.*-[Rr][Cc].*/'
-      when: manual
-      allow_failure: true
     - if: '$POPULATE_CACHE'
       when: never
-    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^v.*/'
+    # We don't tag prerelease versions
+    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$/'
       when: on_success
     - when: manual
       allow_failure: true
-  trigger:
-    project: DataDog/public-images
-    branch: main
-    strategy: depend
   variables:
-    IMG_SOURCES: ghcr.io/datadog/dd-trace-java/dd-lib-java-init:$CI_COMMIT_SHA
-    IMG_DESTINATIONS: dd-lib-java-init:$CI_COMMIT_TAG
-    IMG_SIGNING: "false"
+    IMG_DESTINATION_BASE: dd-lib-java-init
+  script:
+    - .gitlab/build-lib-init.sh
+  artifacts:
+    reports:
+      dotenv: build.env
 
-deploy_latest_tag_to_docker_registries:
+deploy-lib-init-trigger:
   stage: deploy
-  rules:
-    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /.*-[Rr][Cc].*/'
-      when: manual
-      allow_failure: true
-    - if: '$POPULATE_CACHE'
-      when: never
-    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^v1\..*/'
-      when: on_success
-    - when: manual
-      allow_failure: true
+  # needs the version from the generate-tag-values job
+  needs:
+    - job: generate-lib-init-tag-values
+      artifacts: true
   trigger:
+#    project: DataDog/dd-trace-dotnet-gitlab-test # can be used for testing
     project: DataDog/public-images
     branch: main
     strategy: depend
   variables:
     IMG_SOURCES: ghcr.io/datadog/dd-trace-java/dd-lib-java-init:$CI_COMMIT_SHA
-    IMG_DESTINATIONS: dd-lib-java-init:latest
+    IMG_DESTINATIONS: $IMG_DESTINATIONS
     IMG_SIGNING: "false"
 
 create_key:
diff --git a/.gitlab/build-lib-init.sh b/.gitlab/build-lib-init.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..6f47cfaaee1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitlab/build-lib-init.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+# Safety checks to make sure we have required values
+if [ -z "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" ]; then
+  echo "Error: CI_COMMIT_TAG was not provided"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ -z "$CI_COMMIT_SHA" ]; then
+  echo "Error: CI_COMMIT_SHA was not provided"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ -z "$IMG_DESTINATION_BASE" ]; then
+  echo "Error: IMG_DESTINATION_BASE. This should be set to the destination docker image, excluding the tag name, e.g. dd-lib-dotnet-init"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# If this is a pre-release release, we don't publish
+if echo "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" | grep -q "-" > /dev/null; then
+  echo "Error: This is a pre-release version, should not publish images: $CI_COMMIT_TAG"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# Calculate the tags we use for floating major and minor versions
+MAJOR_MINOR_VERSION="$(sed -nE 's/^(v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+)\.[0-9]+$/\1/p' <<< ${CI_COMMIT_TAG})"
+MAJOR_VERSION="$(sed -nE 's/^(v[0-9]+)\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$/\1/p' <<< ${CI_COMMIT_TAG})"
+
+# Make sure we have all the tags
+git fetch --tags
+
+# We need to determine whether this is is the latest tag and whether it's the latest major or not
+# So we fetch all tags and sort them to find both the latest, and the latest in this major.
+# 'sort' technically gets prerelease versions in the wrong order here, but we explicitly
+# exclude them anyway, as they're ignored for the purposes of determining the 'latest' tags.
+LATEST_TAG="$(git tag | grep -E '^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$' | sort -V -r | head -n 1)"
+LATEST_MAJOR_TAG="$(git tag -l "$MAJOR_VERSION.*" | grep -E '^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$' | sort -V -r | head -n 1)"
+echo "This tag: $CI_COMMIT_TAG"
+echo "Latest repository tag: $LATEST_TAG"
+echo "Latest repository tag for this major: $LATEST_MAJOR_TAG"
+echo "---------"
+
+# GNU sort -C (silent) reports via exit code whether the data is already in sorted order
+# We use this to check whether the current tag is greater than (or equal to) the latest tag 
+if printf '%s\n' "$LATEST_TAG" "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" | sort -C -V; then
+  # The current tag is the latest in the repository
+  IS_LATEST_TAG=1
+else
+  IS_LATEST_TAG=0
+fi
+
+if printf '%s\n' "$LATEST_MAJOR_TAG" "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" | sort -C -V; then
+  # The current tag is the latest for this major version in the repository
+  IS_LATEST_MAJOR_TAG=1
+else
+  IS_LATEST_MAJOR_TAG=0
+fi
+
+# print everything for debugging purposes
+echo "Calculated values:"
+echo "MAJOR_MINOR_VERSION=${MAJOR_MINOR_VERSION}"
+echo "MAJOR_VERSION=${MAJOR_VERSION}"
+echo "IS_LATEST_TAG=${IS_LATEST_TAG}"
+echo "IS_LATEST_MAJOR_TAG=${IS_LATEST_MAJOR_TAG}"
+echo "---------"
+
+# Final check that everything is ok
+# We should have a major_minor version
+if [ -z "$MAJOR_MINOR_VERSION" ]; then
+  echo "Error: Could not determine major_minor version for stable release, this should not happen"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# if this is a latest major tag, we should have a major version
+if [ "$IS_LATEST_MAJOR_TAG" -eq 1 ] && [ -z "$MAJOR_VERSION" ]; then
+  echo "Error: Could not determine major version for latest major release, this should not happen"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# Generate the final variables, and save them into build.env so they can be read by the trigger job  
+set_image_tags() {
+  SUFFIX="$1"
+  VARIABLE_SUFFIX="${SUFFIX:+_$SUFFIX}" # add a '_' prefix
+  TAG_SUFFIX="${SUFFIX:+-$SUFFIX}" # add a '-' prefix
+  
+  # We always add this tag, regardless of the version 
+  DESTINATIONS="${IMG_DESTINATION_BASE}:${CI_COMMIT_TAG}${TAG_SUFFIX}"
+  
+  # We always add the major_minor tag (we never release 2.5.2 _after_ 2.5.3, for example)
+  DESTINATIONS="${DESTINATIONS},${IMG_DESTINATION_BASE}:${MAJOR_MINOR_VERSION}${TAG_SUFFIX}"
+    
+  # Only latest-major releases get the major tag
+  if [ "$IS_LATEST_MAJOR_TAG" -eq 1 ]; then
+    DESTINATIONS="${DESTINATIONS},${IMG_DESTINATION_BASE}:${MAJOR_VERSION}${TAG_SUFFIX}"
+  fi
+  
+  # Only latest releases get the latest tag
+  if [ "$IS_LATEST_TAG" -eq 1 ]; then
+    DESTINATIONS="${DESTINATIONS},${IMG_DESTINATION_BASE}:latest${TAG_SUFFIX}"
+  fi
+  
+  # Save the value to the build.env file
+  echo "IMG_DESTINATIONS${VARIABLE_SUFFIX}=${DESTINATIONS}"
+  echo "IMG_DESTINATIONS${VARIABLE_SUFFIX}=${DESTINATIONS}" >> build.env
+}
+
+# Calculate the non-suffixed tags
+set_image_tags
+
+# For each suffix, calculate the tags 
+for ADDITIONAL_TAG_SUFFIX in ${ADDITIONAL_TAG_SUFFIXES//,/ }
+do
+    set_image_tags "$ADDITIONAL_TAG_SUFFIX"
+done
\ No newline at end of file