npm error Tag name must not be a valid SemVer range: 1.5.0-pc.7

[m1212e]

Hi, I try to release a package with the tag: 1.5.0-pc.7 but it gets interpreted as semver range. Do you know how I can do this? I think the version is valid, packages like next do use that format. Thanks a lot!

[mcous]

Hi @m1212e, it sounds like you're confusing the concept of the released version with npm's concept of distribution tags. The limitation that "distribution tags cannot match semver versions" comes from npm itself, not from this library.

You should only use the tag argument if you'd like to release a given version (e.g. "version": "1.5.0-pc.7") on a "distribution tag" other than the default tag of latest. What are the contents of your GitHub Workflow file?

[m1212e]

Hi, thanks for the quick response. This is an excerpt from my workflow file:

        - name: Set tag
          id: tag
          if: ${{ matrix.tag-type }} == dynamic
          run: |
            if [[ "${{ matrix.tag-type }}" == "dynamic"  ]]; then
              if [[ "${{ startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/') }}" == "true" ]]; then
                TAG="${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/}"
                if [[ $TAG == *"-"* ]]; then
                    echo "tag=dev" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
                else
                    echo "tag=latest" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
                fi
              elif [[ "${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' }}" == "true" ]]; then
                echo "tag=dev" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
              fi
            elif [[ "${{ matrix.tag-type }}" == "static" ]]; then
              if [[ "${{ startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/') }}" == "true"  ]]; then
                echo "tag=${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
              elif [[ "${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' }}" == "true" ]]; then
                echo "tag=${branch}-${sha}-${ts}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
              fi
            fi
        - name: Set token
          id: token
          run: |
            if [[ "${{ matrix.registry-url }}" == "https://npm.pkg.github.com" ]]; then
              echo "token=${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
            elif [[ "${{ matrix.registry-url }}" == "https://redacted.com" ]]; then
              echo "token=${{ secrets.OTHER_TOKEN }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
            fi
        - name: Publish client library
          uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v3
          with:
            token: ${{ steps.token.outputs.token }}
            registry: ${{ matrix.registry-url }}
            tag: ${{ steps.tag.outputs.tag }}

While the workflow output is:

Run JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v3
  with:
    token: ***
    registry: https://redacted.com/
    tag: 1.5.0-pc.7
Error: NpmCallError: Call to "npm publish" exited with non-zero exit code 1
npm error Tag name must not be a valid SemVer range: 1.5.0-pc.7
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /home/runner/.npm/_logs/2025-04-14T15_40_56_440Z-debug-0.log

[m1212e]

But I think you were very right: I don't have to explicitly set the version of the package as release tag!
Version (in package.json): "1.5.0-pc.7"
Tag: dev
will result in the package being available as "dev" or via explicit version. Sorry for the confusion and thanks again for your time!