Repository navigation
Add UI support for creating and managing annotated Git tags #22890
Description
GitHub Desktop currently supports viewing and creating lightweight tags, but lacks native UI support for annotated tags — tags that
include metadata like tagger information, tagging date, and a full message.
Annotated tags are important for:
- Release management: Marking official releases with detailed changelogs
- Audit trails: Recording who created a tag and when
- Integration workflows: Many CI/CD systems and release tools expect annotated tags for semantic versioning
Current Behavior
Users must use the command line to create annotated tags:
git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release version 1.0.0"
GitHub Desktop only provides options for lightweight tags through the UI.
Proposed solution
Add a dialog/option in GitHub Desktop that allows users to:
- Create annotated tags with a message
- Specify the tagger name (or auto-populate from Git config)
- View tag details (tagger, date, message) in the tag list
- Option to toggle between lightweight and annotated when creating a tag
Why This Matters
- Consistency: Aligns with Git best practices and professional release workflows
- Accessibility: Reduces friction for developers who want proper release tagging without CLI
- Discoverability: Tag messages visible in the UI help teams understand release context
Use Cases
- Creating release tags with detailed changelog information
- Maintaining proper Git history for compliance/audit purposes
- Enabling automated release workflows that depend on annotated tag metadata
Additional context
No response
Activity
desktop-triage commentedon Sep 17, 2026
Triage summary: This is a feature request, not a bug — GitHub Desktop's
createTagalways passes an empty-m ''message, so there's no UI path to add a tag message, tagger override, or view annotated tag metadata. Suggestingenhancement. This appears related to #12995 ("Create Tag with Message"), which requests the same core capability (a message field in the Create Tag dialog) but doesn't cover the additional asks here (tagger override, viewing tag metadata in the list); I'm not marking it a duplicate since the scope here is broader, but the two should likely be considered together.Initial hypothesis: GitHub Desktop's tag creation always produces an annotated tag under the hood, but with a hardcoded empty message and no way for the user to supply one or view existing tag metadata. In
app/src/lib/git/tag.tslines 17-18,createTagbuilds the git command as['tag', '-a', '-m', '', name, targetCommitSha]— always-a(annotated) with an empty-mvalue, and the function signature has no parameter for a message or tagger. The Create Tag dialog UI would need a new message input (and optionally a tagger override) wired through to this function, plusgetAllTagsin the same file would need to be extended to also read/display each tag's message and tagger info (currently it only extracts tag name → commit SHA viagit show-ref --tags -d). No code currently supports any of the four asks in this issue.github-actions commentedon Sep 17, 2026
Thank you for your issue! We have categorized it as an enhancement (feature or improvement) request, and it has been added to our backlog. In doing so, we are not committing to implementing this feature at this time, but, we will consider it for future releases based on community feedback and our own product roadmap.
Unless you see the help wantedIssues marked as ideal for external contributors
label, we are not currently looking for external contributions for this feature.
If you come across this issue and would like to see it implemented, please add a thumbs up! This will help us prioritize the feature. Please only comment if you have additional information or viewpoints to contribute.
Add an optional message to Create a Tag
Add an optional message to Create a Tag
Add an optional message to Create a Tag