Automating publishing branches

[milkyware]

I have a scenario where I need to create release branches when a new release tag is created. I was wondering if this action supported creating and publishing a branch without having to commit any changes? I have the following workflow:

name: Create Release Branch

on:
  release:
    types:
      - published

jobs:
  create-release-branch:
    name: Create Release Branch
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}

      - uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v5
        name: Create Release Branch
        with:
          branch: release/${{github.event.release.tag_name}}
          create_branch: true
          skip_checkout: true
          skip_dirty_check: true
          skip_fetch: true

However, when I run the workflow, the auto commit step fails with the following logs:

Started: bash /home/runner/work/_actions/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/v5/entrypoint.sh
INPUT_REPOSITORY value: .
INPUT_STATUS_OPTIONS: 
INPUT_FILE_PATTERN: .
INPUT_BRANCH value: release/v0.0.5
INPUT_ADD_OPTIONS: 
INPUT_FILE_PATTERN: .
INPUT_COMMIT_OPTIONS: 
INPUT_COMMIT_USER_NAME: github-actions[bot]
INPUT_COMMIT_USER_EMAIL: 4[18](******)*******+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com
INPUT_COMMIT_MESSAGE: Apply automatic changes
INPUT_COMMIT_AUTHOR: milkyware <********@users.noreply.github.com>
HEAD detached at v0.0.5
nothing to commit, working tree clean
Error: Invalid status code: 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/v5/index.js:17:[19](*****))
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:524:28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1104:16)
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:304:5) {
  code: 1
}
Error: Invalid status code: 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action/v5/index.js:17:19)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:5[24](*****):28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1104:16)
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:304:5)

[stefanzweifel]

This is a valid use case, but it’s outside the scope of what git-auto-commit-action is intended for. You don’t need this action to create and push a branch — GitHub Actions supports this natively with a few lines of shell.

Here’s a minimal workflow that creates and pushes a release branch based on a tag, without committing anything:
(not tested, but this should work)

name: Create Release Branch

on:
  release:
    types: [published]

jobs:
  create-release-branch:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write

    steps:
      - name: Checkout tag
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}

      - name: Create and push release branch
        run: |
          BRANCH_NAME="release/${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}"
          git checkout -b "$BRANCH_NAME"
          git push origin "$BRANCH_NAME"

[milkyware]

Thanks for that, shall give it a go