nx release create empty tags for unchanged repo with "v{version}" tag

[manu-r]

Current Behavior

Running nx release with the following config leads to fatal error:

    "version": {
      "conventionalCommits": true,
      "logUnchangedProjects": false
    },
    "releaseTag": {
      "pattern": "v{version}",
      "requireSemver": true,
      "preferDockerVersion": false
    },
    "projectsRelationship": "independent"

Expected Behavior

nx release should skip the release when there is no new version found when using preferDockerVersion: false

GitHub Repo

No response

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use the provided config
2. Run nx release without any changes
3. nx will try to create tag with v{version} and fails

Nx Report

Node           : 24.11.0
OS             : linux-x64
Native Target  : x86_64-linux
pnpm           : 10.26.0

nx                     : 22.2.4
@nx/js                 : 22.2.4
@nx/jest               : 22.2.4
@nx/eslint             : 22.2.4
@nx/workspace          : 22.2.4
@nx/devkit             : 22.2.4
@nx/esbuild            : 22.2.4
@nx/eslint-plugin      : 22.2.4
@nx/module-federation  : 22.2.4
@nx/nest               : 22.2.4
@nx/next               : 22.2.4
@nx/node               : 22.2.4
@nx/react              : 22.2.4
@nx/rollup             : 22.2.4
@nx/vite               : 22.2.4
@nx/vitest             : 22.2.4
@nx/web                : 22.2.4
@nx/webpack            : 22.2.4
@nx/docker             : 22.2.4
typescript             : 5.9.3
---------------------------------------
Registered Plugins:
@nx/js/typescript
@nx/eslint/plugin
@nx/next/plugin
@nx/webpack/plugin
@nx/docker

Failure Logs

Package Manager Version

No response

Operating System

• macOS
• Linux
• Windows
• Other (Please specify)

Additional Information

No response

[manu-r]

Made a quick fix: nx@22.2.4.patch

[thdk]

I believe I'm running into a similar issue here: https://github.com/thdk/nx-monorepo-demo/actions/runs/20863760603/job/59949631549#step:8:539

For some reason during the versioning of the release group for my packages it gets here:

nx/packages/nx/src/command-line/release/config/config.ts

Line 934 in 0fe39b2

releaseGroup.releaseTag.preferDockerVersion = true;

Which then uses dockerVersion instead of newVersion for the {version} placeholder of my git tag pattern.

nx/packages/nx/src/command-line/release/utils/shared.ts

Lines 321 to 328 in 0fe39b2

	tags.push(
	interpolate(releaseGroup.releaseTag.pattern, {
	version: preferDockerVersion
	? projectVersionData.dockerVersion
	: projectVersionData.newVersion,
	projectName: sanitizeProjectNameForGitTag(project),
	releaseGroupName: releaseGroup.name,
	})

It looks like the root cause could be here where a docker property is set on my group just because I have a single root level docker configuration in my nx release config:

nx/packages/nx/src/command-line/release/config/config.ts

Lines 474 to 480 in 0fe39b2

	docker:
	groupDocker && Object.keys(groupDocker).length > 0
	? {
	...groupDocker,
	groupPreVersionCommand: '',
	}
	: undefined,

    "docker": {
      "versionSchemes": {
        "production": "{currentDate|YYMM.DD}.{shortCommitSha}",
        "hotfix": "{currentDate|YYMM.DD}.{shortCommitSha}-hotfix",
        "example-using-ci-variables": "{env.BUILD_NUMBER}-{shortCommitSha}",
        "semver": "{versionActionsVersion}"
      }
    },

[thdk]

Here I ran into nx trying to version apps that didn't receive a version bump and therefor no version was applied in the docker tag resulting in an invalid tag: https://github.com/thdk/nx-monorepo-demo/actions/runs/20901952680/job/60049218110#step:8:287

[bcowdery]

Running into the same issue in my repo (NX 22.3.1)

It appears that the presence of any "docker" key in a release config causes the issue. And, if you have a root "release.docker" config, then it will break releasing of all the child release groups.

The fix in my case, was to split docker images out into their own group, and push the docker config down into the individual release group(s). Any docker key outside of the docker-specific groups will break git tag generation.

My config now looks something like this:

  "release": {
    "version": {
      "conventionalCommits": true,
      "preVersionCommand": "npx nx run-many -t build"
    },
    "releaseTag": {
      "pattern": "{projectName}@{version}"
    },
    "changelog": {
      "projectChangelogs": {
        "file": false,
        "createRelease": "github"
      }
    },
    // "docker": {  ❌ Breaks everything, push it down to the individual release group
    //   "dockerVersionSchemes": { ... }
    // },
    "groups": {
      "shared-libraries": {
        "projects": [
          "core",
          "core-ui",
          "logging"
        ],
        "projectsRelationship": "independent"
      },
      "api": {
        "projects": ["app-api"],
        "projectsRelationship": "independent",
        "version": {
          "conventionalCommits": false
        },
        "docker": {
          "skipVersionActions": true,
          "repositoryName": "my-org/api",
          "groupPreVersionCommand": "npx nx docker:build api"
        }
      },
      "api-libs": {
        "projects": ["app-ui", "app-contracts"],
        "projectsRelationship": "independent"
      },
    }
  }

This means releasing an app + related libraries now requires two release groups instead of one.

The other issue I encountered is that NX tries to apply conventional commits to Docker versioning, which throws an error when it attempts to parse the Calendar Version as SemVer. I had to disable conventional commits and set skipVersionActions: true explicitly on docker projects to fix the issue.