@exadev/semantic-release-workspace 2.1.0 → 3.0.0

package/README.md

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ One orchestrator run, five stages:
 
 1. **Workspace discovery.** Reads the `packages` globs from `pnpm-workspace.yaml` and every matched package's `package.json` (`dependencies`, `devDependencies`, `peerDependencies`, `optionalDependencies`), building the inter-package dependency graph keyed by package name. Packages must live in subdirectories (a package at the workspace root touches every commit and cannot be path-scoped) and names must be unique. This stage also resolves the workspace root's own path relative to the git repository's toplevel (`git rev-parse --show-prefix`), because `git log --name-only` always reports changed paths relative to that toplevel, not to `pnpm-workspace.yaml`'s own directory -- the two differ whenever the workspace is nested inside a larger repository, and every package's commit filtering is scoped against the repository-relative path, not the workspace-relative one, so nested workspaces are path-scoped correctly rather than silently matching nothing.
 2. **Topological release ordering.** Kahn's algorithm over the discovered graph, so a package only releases after every workspace sibling it depends on has already released in this run. Ties are broken alphabetically within each dependency layer, so the same workspace always produces the same order. A dependency cycle has no valid order at all — the run fails loudly, naming the loop (`x -> y -> x`), rather than picking one of the wrong answers and publishing a package whose sibling dependency points at a version that does not exist yet.
-3. **Per-package scoped release.** For each package in order, the orchestrator calls semantic-release's programmatic API (`require('semantic-release')`, not the CLI) with `cwd` set to the package's directory, `tagFormat` set to `name@version` so each package's tags stay distinct in the one shared tag namespace, and inline `analyzeCommits`/`generateNotes` plugins. Each wrapper runs one `git log --name-only --no-renames` pass over the same release range semantic-release already analysed (from the package's last matching tag to `HEAD`, or the whole history for a first release), maps every commit to the paths it changed, and filters the commit list down to commits touching the package's own directory **before delegating to the real @semantic-release/commit-analyzer and @semantic-release/release-notes-generator**. Conventional-commit parsing and changelog formatting stay entirely inside the standard plugins — the orchestrator only scopes what they see.
+3. **Per-package scoped release.** For each package in order, the orchestrator calls semantic-release's programmatic API (`require('semantic-release')`, not the CLI) with `cwd` set to the package's directory, `tagFormat` resolved from the `tagFormat` option (default `'${name}@${version}'`) so each package's tags stay distinct in the one shared tag namespace, and inline `analyzeCommits`/`generateNotes` plugins. Each wrapper runs one `git log --name-only --no-renames` pass over the same release range semantic-release already analysed (from the package's last matching tag to `HEAD`, or the whole history for a first release), maps every commit to the paths it changed, and filters the commit list down to commits touching the package's own directory **before delegating to the real @semantic-release/commit-analyzer and @semantic-release/release-notes-generator**. Conventional-commit parsing and changelog formatting stay entirely inside the standard plugins — the orchestrator only scopes what they see.
 4. **Cross-package manifest bumping** — the heart of the design, covered in its own section below.
 5. **Standard plugins do the publishing.** @semantic-release/npm, @semantic-release/github, @semantic-release/changelog, and @semantic-release/git run per package exactly as in a single-package repository, scoped by `cwd`. The orchestrator coordinates and sequences them; it does not reimplement npm publishing, GitHub release creation, or changelog file writing.
 
@@ -66,7 +66,13 @@ Everything above describes `commitStrategy: 'per-package'`, the default: unchang
 | Default publish plugins | `DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS` (changelog, npm, github, git) | `SINGLE_COMMIT_DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS` — the same list minus git |
 | Crash recovery        | A bump commit already sitting in git history (from this run or an earlier one) is recognised via a machine-parseable trailer, so a run that resumes after a partial push still forces the right dependent releases | Not needed: either the whole combined commit lands and pushes, or the run fails before touching git at all, so there is never a partial push to recover from |
 
-Everything about *what* releases (topological order, forced-patch dependents, dependency-range classification, path-scoped commit analysis, unsupported-range rejection) is identical between the two modes — `commitStrategy` only changes how the result is committed, tagged, and pushed. Set it via the `--commit-strategy <mode>` CLI flag, the `commitStrategy` field in a `--config` file, or the `commitStrategy` option to `releaseWorkspace()`; omit it and nothing changes.
+Everything about *what* releases (topological order, forced-patch dependents, dependency-range classification, path-scoped commit analysis, unsupported-range rejection) is identical between the two modes — `commitStrategy` only changes how the result is committed, tagged, and pushed. ## Tag format
+
+Each package's release tag comes from the `tagFormat` option, a lodash template with `${name}` and `${version}` placeholders, defaulting to `'${name}@${version}'`. Set it via the `tagFormat` field in a `--config` file or the `tagFormat` option to `releaseWorkspace()`. The template must contain `${version}` and may contain `${name}`; anything else is rejected before any package releases.
+
+Override it when the tags are consumed as refs outside git: GitHub Actions pins composite actions as `owner/repo/path@ref`, and GitHub's workflow parser rejects a ref containing `@` -- so a repository of actions sets `'${name}-v${version}'` and every workflow pins `...@<action>-v<major>`. Note that switching an existing repository's format starts a fresh tag namespace: semantic-release will not see prior releases recorded under the old format, so rename existing tags to the new template as part of the switch.
+
+Set it via the `--commit-strategy <mode>` CLI flag, the `commitStrategy` field in a `--config` file, or the `commitStrategy` option to `releaseWorkspace()`; omit it and nothing changes.
 
 `'single'` mode still runs each package's own configured publish plugins afterward (npm publish with provenance, GitHub releases), scoped per package exactly as `'per-package'` mode does — it just runs their `verifyConditions`/`publish`/`success` steps directly against the already-committed-and-tagged repository state, since by that point semantic-release's own top-level orchestrator would misread the tag this mode already created as an existing release. `addChannel` and `fail` are not called in this mode (pre-release channel promotion and posting an automated failure comment/issue, respectively) — a deliberate scope boundary, not a silent gap: raise an issue if your workflow needs them.
 
@@ -152,6 +158,7 @@ The core technique is the same one multi-semantic-release proved in production:
 - **Bump-only dependents always release.** multi-semantic-release rewrites dependency ranges in the working tree without committing them, so a dependent whose only change is a dependency update can go unreleased until some other commit triggers it. Here the bump is committed before the dependent's turn and a patch release is forced deterministically (see the timing section above).
 - **Loud failures by design.** A dependency cycle, an unsupported dependency range, a publish pipeline without @semantic-release/git (which would leave released manifests uncommitted), an unresolvable plugin, a duplicate package name — each stops the run with a specific error rather than degrading silently. There is deliberately no "skip this package and carry on" path: a partially-consistent set of publishes is worse than none.
 - **Only installable specifiers reach the registry.** `workspace:`, `catalog:`, `link:`, and `file:` specifiers in a publishable package's installed dependency fields are rejected instead of being published as written. In private packages and `devDependencies`, `workspace:*`/`workspace:^`/`workspace:~` are understood as naming no version (bump the release, not the manifest text), and `catalog:` and `npm:` aliases on a workspace sibling are rejected with an explanation instead of being mangled.
+- **Private packages release without advertising themselves.** A package marked `private` takes part in the run exactly as any other, tag and version bump and dependency cascade included, but creates no GitHub Release, because a Release for a package that never reaches a registry both points at nothing installable and takes the repository's Latest label off a package that does.
 - **Workspace-agnostic discovery.** Everything comes from `pnpm-workspace.yaml` and the manifests its globs match; pointing the orchestrator at any pnpm workspace is the entire configuration.
 
 Out of scope, on purpose: parallelising independent branches of the dependency graph (packages release sequentially in topological order for correctness first — a real future optimisation, not attempted here), and any Changesets-style explicit-changeset mode, which is a different paradigm rather than a missing feature.
@@ -219,11 +226,17 @@ Listing `@semantic-release/commit-analyzer` or `@semantic-release/release-notes-
 
 Note that the orchestrator sets `tagFormat`, `plugins`, `analyzeCommits`, and `generateNotes` explicitly on every per-package run, so those keys in any `release.config.*` found in the workspace are overridden by construction — configure the release through the orchestrator, not through a leftover single-package config.
 
-### Per-package publish plugins
+### Private packages and GitHub Releases
 
-`plugins` is one list for the whole workspace. `packagePlugins` (config file and programmatic API only, since a list keyed by package name has no natural flag form) replaces that list outright for the packages it names, and every other package keeps the workspace-wide list. The override is not merged with the workspace-wide list: it is the complete list for that package, subject to the same rules as any other (for instance `@semantic-release/git` is required under `commitStrategy: 'per-package'` and rejected under `'single'`). A name that is not a package in the workspace is rejected, so a misspelling cannot leave a package on the default list unnoticed.
+A package whose manifest sets `"private": true` gets the workspace-wide plugin list minus `@semantic-release/github`, without being configured to. Nothing else about its release changes: it still gets its version bump, its `name@version` tag and the dependency cascade to its dependents, all of which a dependent's own release can hinge on (a private package whose build output ships inside a published one, for example). What it loses is a public GitHub Release for something nobody can install.
+
+That release is not merely redundant. `@semantic-release/github` sets the REST API's `make_latest` from the release branch alone, with no option to opt out, so every release it creates claims the repository's Latest label and the last one created keeps it. Topological order puts a package that depends on the published ones at the end of the run, which is exactly where a private package usually sits, so without this rule the repository's front page advertises an unpublishable package as its current release.
+
+To keep the Release for a private package anyway, name it in `packagePlugins` below: an explicit list is taken exactly as written.
+
+### Per-package publish plugins
 
-The case this exists for is a private package. Such a package still needs its `name@version` tag, its version bump and the dependency cascade to its dependents, because a dependent's own release can hinge on it (a private package whose build output ships inside a published one, for example). It does not need a public GitHub Release, and `@semantic-release/github` marks every release it creates from the release branch as the repository's Latest, so GitHub ends up showing whichever package the run released last, which is often a private one that depends on the rest. Leaving that plugin off the private package's list removes the Release and nothing else:
+`plugins` is one list for the whole workspace. `packagePlugins` (config file and programmatic API only, since a list keyed by package name has no natural flag form) replaces that list outright for the packages it names, and every other package keeps the workspace-wide list, or the private-package variant of it described above. The override is not merged with either: it is the complete list for that package, subject to the same rules as any other (for instance `@semantic-release/git` is required under `commitStrategy: 'per-package'` and rejected under `'single'`). A name that is not a package in the workspace is rejected, so a misspelling cannot leave a package on the default list unnoticed.
 
 ```ts
 // release-workspace.config.ts
@@ -231,7 +244,10 @@ import { DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS, type ReleaseWorkspaceOptions } from '@exadev/s
 
 const config: ReleaseWorkspaceOptions = {
   packagePlugins: {
-    '@acme/web-console': DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS.filter((plugin) => plugin !== '@semantic-release/github'),
+    // A private package that does want its GitHub Release, opting back in to the list every public package gets.
+    '@acme/internal-tooling': DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
+    // A published package kept out of a step the rest need.
+    '@acme/docs-site': DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS.filter((plugin) => plugin !== '@semantic-release/npm'),
   },
 };
 

package/dist/cli.js

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import { generateNotes } from "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator";
 import semanticRelease from "semantic-release";
 import { pathToFileURL } from "node:url";
 //#region package.json
-var version = "2.1.0";
+var version = "3.0.0";
 //#endregion
 //#region src/errors.ts
 /**
@@ -59,6 +59,21 @@ var PnpmCommandError = class extends WorkspaceReleaseError {
 		super(`pnpm install --lockfile-only failed in ${cwd}: ${detail}`);
 	}
 };
+/**
+* Validate a caller-supplied tagFormat once per run, before any package releases. The template must contain `${version}` (semantic-release interpolates it; without it every package would compute the same tag and overwrite its predecessor) and may contain `${name}`, which the orchestrator substitutes per package. Any other `${...}` token is a typo or a placeholder semantic-release does not support in tagFormat, so it is rejected here rather than released as a literal into a tag name.
+*/
+function validateTagFormat(tagFormat) {
+	if (!tagFormat.includes("${version}")) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`tagFormat must contain '\${version}' so each package's release tag carries its version; got: ${tagFormat}`);
+	const unknown = [...tagFormat.matchAll(/\$\{([^}]*)\}/g)].map((match) => match[1] ?? "").filter((token) => token !== "name" && token !== "version").filter((token) => token !== "");
+	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`tagFormat supports only the '\${name}' and '\${version}' placeholders; unknown token(s): ${unknown.map((token) => `\${${token}}`).join(", ")}`);
+	return tagFormat;
+}
+/**
+* Substitute `${name}` for one package. Called per package at release time; the returned template still carries the literal `${version}` for semantic-release to interpolate, exactly as the default `name@version` format always has.
+*/
+function formatTagForPackage(tagFormat, name) {
+	return tagFormat.replaceAll("${name}", name);
+}
 //#endregion
 //#region src/exec-file.ts
 /**
@@ -587,6 +602,10 @@ function topologicalOrder(graph) {
 	if (pending.size > 0) throw new DependencyCycleError(findCycle(graph, new Set(pending.keys())));
 	return ordered;
 }
+/** The packages a release order names, in that order, for the stages that need each package's manifest rather than only its name. */
+function orderedPackages(graph, order) {
+	return order.map((name) => mustGet(graph.packages, name, "package"));
+}
 /**
 * Walks dependency edges between the packages Kahn's algorithm could not place, until it revisits one, so the error can name a concrete loop rather than just a set of packages. Every unplaced package is unplaced precisely because at least one of its own dependencies is too, so the walk always reaches a repeat.
 */
@@ -668,6 +687,8 @@ function matchTrailerLine(message, key) {
 }
 //#endregion
 //#region src/plugins.ts
+/** The one plugin a private package is kept off by default: see `resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins` for why a package that never reaches a registry does not get a public GitHub Release either. */
+const GITHUB_RELEASE_PLUGIN = "@semantic-release/github";
 /** semantic-release's own `getLastRelease` returns `{}` for a package with no prior tag -- not `undefined`, and not a fully-populated `LastRelease` -- contradicting the `gitHead: string` its own type declares. Narrows structurally rather than trusting that declared type, so a first-release context's `lastRelease` (correctly, at runtime) never claims a `gitHead` it does not have. */
 function hasGitHead(lastRelease) {
 	return typeof lastRelease === "object" && lastRelease !== null && "gitHead" in lastRelease && typeof lastRelease.gitHead === "string";
@@ -794,13 +815,17 @@ function resolvePublishPlugins(specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
 /**
 * Resolves the publish plugin list of every package in the workspace: the workspace-wide list for each package, except where `packagePlugins` names a package, whose own list replaces it. Every list is held to the same rules as `resolvePublishPlugins` applies to a workspace-wide one, and a failure in an override names the package it belongs to.
 *
+* A package whose manifest sets `private: true` and which no `packagePlugins` entry names gets the workspace-wide list minus `@semantic-release/github`. A private package is never published, so a public GitHub Release for it advertises something nobody can install, and that release is not merely redundant: `@semantic-release/github` sets `make_latest` from the release branch alone, with no option to opt out, so every release it creates claims the repository's Latest label and the last one created keeps it. A private package sitting at the end of the topological order (which is where a package that depends on the published ones necessarily sits) therefore takes the label on every run. Everything the private package actually needs from the run is untouched: its version bump, its tag, and the dependency cascade to its dependents all come from the other plugins and from the orchestrator itself.
+*
+* A `packagePlugins` entry naming a private package is taken exactly as written, `@semantic-release/github` included, so a workspace that does want a Release for a private package can still say so.
+*
 * A `packagePlugins` key that matches no package is rejected rather than ignored: a misspelt name would otherwise leave the package it meant on the workspace-wide list with nothing to say so, which for the intended use (keeping a package out of a step such as GitHub Release creation) is a silent wrong result.
 */
-function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packageNames, specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
+function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packages, specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
 	const overrides = specs.packagePlugins === void 0 ? [] : Object.entries(specs.packagePlugins);
-	const known = new Set(packageNames);
+	const known = new Set(packages.map((pkg) => pkg.name));
 	const unknown = overrides.map(([name]) => name).filter((name) => !known.has(name));
-	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins names ${unknown.map((name) => `"${name}"`).join(", ")}, which ${unknown.length === 1 ? "is" : "are"} not a package in this workspace. Packages: ${packageNames.join(", ")}.`);
+	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins names ${unknown.map((name) => `"${name}"`).join(", ")}, which ${unknown.length === 1 ? "is" : "are"} not a package in this workspace. Packages: ${[...known].join(", ")}.`);
 	const workspaceWide = resolvePublishPlugins(specs.plugins, workspaceRoot, options);
 	const resolvedOverrides = /* @__PURE__ */ new Map();
 	for (const [name, list] of overrides) try {
@@ -809,7 +834,9 @@ function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packageNames, specs, workspaceRoot, opti
 		if (cause instanceof ReleaseConfigurationError) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins for "${name}": ${cause.message}`);
 		throw cause;
 	}
-	return new Map(packageNames.map((name) => [name, resolvedOverrides.get(name) ?? workspaceWide]));
+	const privateSpecs = specs.plugins.filter((spec) => parsePublishPluginSpec(spec)[0] !== GITHUB_RELEASE_PLUGIN);
+	const forPrivatePackages = privateSpecs.length === specs.plugins.length ? workspaceWide : resolvePublishPlugins(privateSpecs, workspaceRoot, options);
+	return new Map(packages.map((pkg) => [pkg.name, resolvedOverrides.get(pkg.name) ?? (pkg.private ? forPrivatePackages : workspaceWide)]));
 }
 /**
 * Resolves a plugin module name to an absolute file path, first from this tool's own module context (its peer dependencies, which every workspace installing the orchestrator must provide) and then from the workspace root (a workspace's own plugin dependencies, such as a custom changelog plugin). Both bases are named in the error when neither can resolve the name.
@@ -871,7 +898,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order: ${order.join(" -> ")} (commitStrategy: single)`);
-	const resolvedPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const resolvedPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? SINGLE_COMMIT_DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, {
@@ -880,6 +907,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 	});
 	const analyzeCommitsConfig = options.analyzeCommits ?? {};
 	const generateNotesConfig = options.generateNotes ?? {};
+	const tagFormat = validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}");
 	const capturedCommits = /* @__PURE__ */ new Map();
 	const captured = {
 		branch: void 0,
@@ -893,6 +921,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 		const bumpsForThisPackage = pendingBumps.get(name) ?? [];
 		pendingBumps.delete(name);
 		const nextRelease = await analysePackage(pkg, {
+			tagFormat,
 			resolvedPlugins: mustGet(resolvedPlugins, name, "publish plugins"),
 			analyzeCommitsConfig,
 			generateNotesConfig,
@@ -1015,7 +1044,7 @@ async function analysePackage(pkg, options) {
 		onCommitsResolved: options.onCommitsResolved
 	});
 	const semanticReleaseOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.resolvedPlugins,
 		dryRun: true,
 		async analyzeCommits(pluginConfig, context) {
@@ -1153,7 +1182,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspace(options = {}) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order: ${order.join(" -> ")}`);
-	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, { requireGitPlugin: !dryRun });
@@ -1163,6 +1192,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspace(options = {}) {
 		order,
 		packages: (await runReleaseLoop(graph, order, workspace, dryRun, log, async (pkg, bumpsForThisPackage) => {
 			const result = await runPackageRelease(pkg, {
+				tagFormat: validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}"),
 				publishPlugins: mustGet(publishPlugins, pkg.name, "publish plugins"),
 				analyzeCommitsConfig,
 				generateNotesConfig,
@@ -1244,7 +1274,7 @@ async function runPackageRelease(pkg, options) {
 		bumps: { bumpsFor: () => options.bumpsForThisPackage }
 	});
 	const semanticReleaseOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.publishPlugins,
 		analyzeCommits: scoped.analyzeCommits,
 		generateNotes: scoped.generateNotes
@@ -1319,7 +1349,7 @@ async function detachWorkspaceRelease(options) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order (gated -- tag only, publish deferred): ${order.join(" -> ")}`);
-	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, { requireGitPlugin: !dryRun });
@@ -1331,6 +1361,7 @@ async function detachWorkspaceRelease(options) {
 			analyzeCommitsConfig,
 			generateNotesConfig,
 			bumpsForThisPackage,
+			tagFormat: validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}"),
 			dryRun,
 			env,
 			branches: options.branches
@@ -1373,7 +1404,7 @@ async function runPackageDetach(pkg, options) {
 		bumps: { bumpsFor: () => options.bumpsForThisPackage }
 	});
 	const cliOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.publishPlugins,
 		analyzeCommits: scoped.analyzeCommits,
 		generateNotes: scoped.generateNotes

package/dist/index.cjs

@@ -603,6 +603,10 @@ function topologicalOrder(graph) {
 	if (pending.size > 0) throw new DependencyCycleError(findCycle(graph, new Set(pending.keys())));
 	return ordered;
 }
+/** The packages a release order names, in that order, for the stages that need each package's manifest rather than only its name. */
+function orderedPackages(graph, order) {
+	return order.map((name) => mustGet(graph.packages, name, "package"));
+}
 /**
 * Walks dependency edges between the packages Kahn's algorithm could not place, until it revisits one, so the error can name a concrete loop rather than just a set of packages. Every unplaced package is unplaced precisely because at least one of its own dependencies is too, so the walk always reaches a repeat.
 */
@@ -681,6 +685,8 @@ function matchTrailerLine(message, key) {
 }
 //#endregion
 //#region src/plugins.ts
+/** The one plugin a private package is kept off by default: see `resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins` for why a package that never reaches a registry does not get a public GitHub Release either. */
+const GITHUB_RELEASE_PLUGIN = "@semantic-release/github";
 /** semantic-release's own `getLastRelease` returns `{}` for a package with no prior tag -- not `undefined`, and not a fully-populated `LastRelease` -- contradicting the `gitHead: string` its own type declares. Narrows structurally rather than trusting that declared type, so a first-release context's `lastRelease` (correctly, at runtime) never claims a `gitHead` it does not have. */
 function hasGitHead(lastRelease) {
 	return typeof lastRelease === "object" && lastRelease !== null && "gitHead" in lastRelease && typeof lastRelease.gitHead === "string";
@@ -807,13 +813,17 @@ function resolvePublishPlugins(specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
 /**
 * Resolves the publish plugin list of every package in the workspace: the workspace-wide list for each package, except where `packagePlugins` names a package, whose own list replaces it. Every list is held to the same rules as `resolvePublishPlugins` applies to a workspace-wide one, and a failure in an override names the package it belongs to.
 *
+* A package whose manifest sets `private: true` and which no `packagePlugins` entry names gets the workspace-wide list minus `@semantic-release/github`. A private package is never published, so a public GitHub Release for it advertises something nobody can install, and that release is not merely redundant: `@semantic-release/github` sets `make_latest` from the release branch alone, with no option to opt out, so every release it creates claims the repository's Latest label and the last one created keeps it. A private package sitting at the end of the topological order (which is where a package that depends on the published ones necessarily sits) therefore takes the label on every run. Everything the private package actually needs from the run is untouched: its version bump, its tag, and the dependency cascade to its dependents all come from the other plugins and from the orchestrator itself.
+*
+* A `packagePlugins` entry naming a private package is taken exactly as written, `@semantic-release/github` included, so a workspace that does want a Release for a private package can still say so.
+*
 * A `packagePlugins` key that matches no package is rejected rather than ignored: a misspelt name would otherwise leave the package it meant on the workspace-wide list with nothing to say so, which for the intended use (keeping a package out of a step such as GitHub Release creation) is a silent wrong result.
 */
-function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packageNames, specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
+function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packages, specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
 	const overrides = specs.packagePlugins === void 0 ? [] : Object.entries(specs.packagePlugins);
-	const known = new Set(packageNames);
+	const known = new Set(packages.map((pkg) => pkg.name));
 	const unknown = overrides.map(([name]) => name).filter((name) => !known.has(name));
-	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins names ${unknown.map((name) => `"${name}"`).join(", ")}, which ${unknown.length === 1 ? "is" : "are"} not a package in this workspace. Packages: ${packageNames.join(", ")}.`);
+	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins names ${unknown.map((name) => `"${name}"`).join(", ")}, which ${unknown.length === 1 ? "is" : "are"} not a package in this workspace. Packages: ${[...known].join(", ")}.`);
 	const workspaceWide = resolvePublishPlugins(specs.plugins, workspaceRoot, options);
 	const resolvedOverrides = /* @__PURE__ */ new Map();
 	for (const [name, list] of overrides) try {
@@ -822,7 +832,9 @@ function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packageNames, specs, workspaceRoot, opti
 		if (cause instanceof ReleaseConfigurationError) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins for "${name}": ${cause.message}`);
 		throw cause;
 	}
-	return new Map(packageNames.map((name) => [name, resolvedOverrides.get(name) ?? workspaceWide]));
+	const privateSpecs = specs.plugins.filter((spec) => parsePublishPluginSpec(spec)[0] !== GITHUB_RELEASE_PLUGIN);
+	const forPrivatePackages = privateSpecs.length === specs.plugins.length ? workspaceWide : resolvePublishPlugins(privateSpecs, workspaceRoot, options);
+	return new Map(packages.map((pkg) => [pkg.name, resolvedOverrides.get(pkg.name) ?? (pkg.private ? forPrivatePackages : workspaceWide)]));
 }
 /**
 * Resolves a plugin module name to an absolute file path, first from this tool's own module context (its peer dependencies, which every workspace installing the orchestrator must provide) and then from the workspace root (a workspace's own plugin dependencies, such as a custom changelog plugin). Both bases are named in the error when neither can resolve the name.
@@ -857,6 +869,21 @@ async function regenerateLockfile(options) {
 		throw new PnpmCommandError(options.cwd, detail);
 	}
 }
+/**
+* Validate a caller-supplied tagFormat once per run, before any package releases. The template must contain `${version}` (semantic-release interpolates it; without it every package would compute the same tag and overwrite its predecessor) and may contain `${name}`, which the orchestrator substitutes per package. Any other `${...}` token is a typo or a placeholder semantic-release does not support in tagFormat, so it is rejected here rather than released as a literal into a tag name.
+*/
+function validateTagFormat(tagFormat) {
+	if (!tagFormat.includes("${version}")) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`tagFormat must contain '\${version}' so each package's release tag carries its version; got: ${tagFormat}`);
+	const unknown = [...tagFormat.matchAll(/\$\{([^}]*)\}/g)].map((match) => match[1] ?? "").filter((token) => token !== "name" && token !== "version").filter((token) => token !== "");
+	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`tagFormat supports only the '\${name}' and '\${version}' placeholders; unknown token(s): ${unknown.map((token) => `\${${token}}`).join(", ")}`);
+	return tagFormat;
+}
+/**
+* Substitute `${name}` for one package. Called per package at release time; the returned template still carries the literal `${version}` for semantic-release to interpolate, exactly as the default `name@version` format always has.
+*/
+function formatTagForPackage(tagFormat, name) {
+	return tagFormat.replaceAll("${name}", name);
+}
 //#endregion
 //#region src/single-commit-release.ts
 /**
@@ -884,7 +911,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order: ${order.join(" -> ")} (commitStrategy: single)`);
-	const resolvedPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const resolvedPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? SINGLE_COMMIT_DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, {
@@ -893,6 +920,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 	});
 	const analyzeCommitsConfig = options.analyzeCommits ?? {};
 	const generateNotesConfig = options.generateNotes ?? {};
+	const tagFormat = validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}");
 	const capturedCommits = /* @__PURE__ */ new Map();
 	const captured = {
 		branch: void 0,
@@ -906,6 +934,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 		const bumpsForThisPackage = pendingBumps.get(name) ?? [];
 		pendingBumps.delete(name);
 		const nextRelease = await analysePackage(pkg, {
+			tagFormat,
 			resolvedPlugins: mustGet(resolvedPlugins, name, "publish plugins"),
 			analyzeCommitsConfig,
 			generateNotesConfig,
@@ -1028,7 +1057,7 @@ async function analysePackage(pkg, options) {
 		onCommitsResolved: options.onCommitsResolved
 	});
 	const semanticReleaseOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.resolvedPlugins,
 		dryRun: true,
 		async analyzeCommits(pluginConfig, context) {
@@ -1159,7 +1188,7 @@ async function detachWorkspaceRelease(options) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order (gated -- tag only, publish deferred): ${order.join(" -> ")}`);
-	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, { requireGitPlugin: !dryRun });
@@ -1171,6 +1200,7 @@ async function detachWorkspaceRelease(options) {
 			analyzeCommitsConfig,
 			generateNotesConfig,
 			bumpsForThisPackage,
+			tagFormat: validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}"),
 			dryRun,
 			env,
 			branches: options.branches
@@ -1213,7 +1243,7 @@ async function runPackageDetach(pkg, options) {
 		bumps: { bumpsFor: () => options.bumpsForThisPackage }
 	});
 	const cliOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.publishPlugins,
 		analyzeCommits: scoped.analyzeCommits,
 		generateNotes: scoped.generateNotes
@@ -1300,7 +1330,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspace(options = {}) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order: ${order.join(" -> ")}`);
-	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, { requireGitPlugin: !dryRun });
@@ -1310,6 +1340,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspace(options = {}) {
 		order,
 		packages: (await runReleaseLoop(graph, order, workspace, dryRun, log, async (pkg, bumpsForThisPackage) => {
 			const result = await runPackageRelease(pkg, {
+				tagFormat: validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}"),
 				publishPlugins: mustGet(publishPlugins, pkg.name, "publish plugins"),
 				analyzeCommitsConfig,
 				generateNotesConfig,
@@ -1391,7 +1422,7 @@ async function runPackageRelease(pkg, options) {
 		bumps: { bumpsFor: () => options.bumpsForThisPackage }
 	});
 	const semanticReleaseOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.publishPlugins,
 		analyzeCommits: scoped.analyzeCommits,
 		generateNotes: scoped.generateNotes
@@ -1466,6 +1497,7 @@ exports.classifyDependencyRange = classifyDependencyRange;
 exports.createScopedPlugins = createScopedPlugins;
 exports.discoverWorkspace = discoverWorkspace;
 exports.filterCommitsToDirectory = filterCommitsToDirectory;
+exports.orderedPackages = orderedPackages;
 exports.packageName = packageName;
 exports.readManifest = readManifest;
 exports.releaseWorkspace = releaseWorkspace;

package/dist/index.d.cts

@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ export declare function buildDependencyGraph(packages: readonly WorkspacePackage
  * A cycle has no valid order at all, so it throws rather than picking one of the wrong answers. In a release context an arbitrary order is worse than a failure: it would publish a package whose sibling dependency range points at a version that does not exist yet.
  */
 export declare function topologicalOrder(graph: DependencyGraph): readonly string[];
+/** The packages a release order names, in that order, for the stages that need each package's manifest rather than only its name. */
+export declare function orderedPackages(graph: DependencyGraph, order: readonly string[]): readonly WorkspacePackage[];
 //#endregion
 //#region src/version-range.d.ts
 /**
@@ -149,6 +151,11 @@ interface DependencyBumpSource {
 type PublishPluginSpec = string | readonly [string] | readonly [string, Record<string, unknown>];
 /** Publish plugin lists keyed by package name. Each list replaces the workspace-wide list outright for that one package; it is not merged with it. */
 type PackagePluginSpecs = Readonly<Record<string, readonly PublishPluginSpec[]>>;
+/** All resolving a package's publish plugins needs to know about it: its name, and whether its manifest marks it private. `WorkspacePackage` satisfies this structurally. */
+interface PublishPluginPackage {
+  readonly name: string;
+  readonly private: boolean;
+}
 /** The standard publish pipeline this orchestrator coordinates when a workspace configures none of its own. Every entry reuses the corresponding official plugin -- the orchestrator scopes and sequences them per package, it does not reimplement npm publishing, GitHub release creation, or changelog writing. */
 export declare const DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS: readonly PublishPluginSpec[];
 /** The standard publish pipeline for `commitStrategy: 'single'`: the same as `DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS` minus `@semantic-release/git`, which that mode never runs -- see `resolvePublishPlugins`'s `forbidGitPlugin` option for why it is rejected outright rather than merely unused. Single-commit mode does its own committing (one combined commit for every released package), so a `prepare`-step git plugin here would create the very per-package commits that mode exists to avoid. */
@@ -193,9 +200,13 @@ export declare function resolvePublishPlugins(specs: readonly PublishPluginSpec[
 /**
  * Resolves the publish plugin list of every package in the workspace: the workspace-wide list for each package, except where `packagePlugins` names a package, whose own list replaces it. Every list is held to the same rules as `resolvePublishPlugins` applies to a workspace-wide one, and a failure in an override names the package it belongs to.
  *
+ * A package whose manifest sets `private: true` and which no `packagePlugins` entry names gets the workspace-wide list minus `@semantic-release/github`. A private package is never published, so a public GitHub Release for it advertises something nobody can install, and that release is not merely redundant: `@semantic-release/github` sets `make_latest` from the release branch alone, with no option to opt out, so every release it creates claims the repository's Latest label and the last one created keeps it. A private package sitting at the end of the topological order (which is where a package that depends on the published ones necessarily sits) therefore takes the label on every run. Everything the private package actually needs from the run is untouched: its version bump, its tag, and the dependency cascade to its dependents all come from the other plugins and from the orchestrator itself.
+ *
+ * A `packagePlugins` entry naming a private package is taken exactly as written, `@semantic-release/github` included, so a workspace that does want a Release for a private package can still say so.
+ *
  * A `packagePlugins` key that matches no package is rejected rather than ignored: a misspelt name would otherwise leave the package it meant on the workspace-wide list with nothing to say so, which for the intended use (keeping a package out of a step such as GitHub Release creation) is a silent wrong result.
  */
-export declare function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packageNames: readonly string[], specs: {
+export declare function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packages: readonly PublishPluginPackage[], specs: {
   readonly plugins: readonly PublishPluginSpec[];
   readonly packagePlugins: PackagePluginSpecs | undefined;
 }, workspaceRoot: string, options: {
@@ -246,7 +257,7 @@ interface ReleaseWorkspaceOptions {
   readonly branches?: readonly BranchSpec[];
   /** Publish-pipeline plugins (changelog, npm, GitHub, git), each scoped per package by semantic-release's own `cwd`. Defaults to the standard pipeline in DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS for `commitStrategy: 'per-package'`, or SINGLE_COMMIT_DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS (the same list minus `@semantic-release/git`) for `commitStrategy: 'single'`. */
   readonly plugins?: readonly PublishPluginSpec[];
-  /** Publish plugin lists for individual packages, keyed by package name, each replacing `plugins` (or its default) outright for that package. Every other package keeps the workspace-wide list. The usual use is keeping one package out of a step the rest need, for example leaving `@semantic-release/github` off a private package so it gets its tag, version bump and dependency cascade without a public GitHub Release. Applies under every `commitStrategy` and to `gatePublish`. A name that is not a package in the workspace is rejected. */
+  /** Publish plugin lists for individual packages, keyed by package name, each replacing `plugins` (or its default) outright for that package. Every other package keeps the workspace-wide list, except that a package marked `private` in its manifest drops `@semantic-release/github` from it on its own (see `resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins`), so the usual reason to reach for this is either the reverse of that default, a private package that does want a GitHub Release, or keeping a package out of some other step the rest need. Applies under every `commitStrategy` and to `gatePublish`. A name that is not a package in the workspace is rejected. */
   readonly packagePlugins?: PackagePluginSpecs;
   /** Options for the wrapped `@semantic-release/commit-analyzer`, applied per package after path filtering. */
   readonly analyzeCommits?: Record<string, unknown>;
@@ -260,6 +271,14 @@ interface ReleaseWorkspaceOptions {
    * Opt-in, orthogonal to `commitStrategy` -- it governs *when* publish/success run relative to tag+push, not *how many commits* the release makes. When `true`, each package's release is tagged and pushed via `@exadev/release-gate`'s `detachRelease` but never published: `WorkspaceReleaseOutcome.detached` carries the state `resumeWorkspaceRelease` needs to finish publishing later, from the same process or a different one, once an external gate confirms the release should actually go out. Rejected outright in combination with `commitStrategy: 'single'` -- `single-commit-release.ts`'s tag/publish machinery is entirely bespoke and never goes through semantic-release's own `run()`, so it has no insertion point for `release-gate`'s primitives. Defaults to `false`, today's exact existing behaviour.
    */
   readonly gatePublish?: boolean;
+  /**
+   * Lodash template for each package's release tag, with `${name}` and `${version}` placeholders.
+   * Defaults to `'${name}@${version}'`. Override it when the tags double as refs consumed outside
+   * git: GitHub Actions pins composite actions as `owner/repo/path@ref`, and GitHub's workflow
+   * parser rejects a ref containing `@`, so a repository of actions sets `'${name}-v${version}'`
+   * and pins `...@<action>-v1`. Validated once per run by `validateTagFormat`.
+   */
+  readonly tagFormat?: string;
 }
 /** One dependency-range change applied to a dependent package's manifest during the run, attached to the dependent's own outcome. */
 interface AppliedDependencyBump extends DependencyBump {
@@ -326,4 +345,4 @@ export declare class GitCommandError extends WorkspaceReleaseError {
 /** The workspace's git state does not support the release operation -- for example a detached HEAD, which names no branch that dependency-bump commits could be pushed to. */
 export declare class WorkspaceStateError extends WorkspaceReleaseError {}
 //#endregion
-export type { AppliedDependencyBump, CommitStrategy, DependencyBump, DependencyBumpSource, DependencyField, DependencyGraph, DependencyRangeShape, DependencyRangeUpdate, DetachedPackageRelease, PackageManifest, PackagePluginSpecs, PackageReleaseOutcome, PublishPluginSpec, ReleaseWorkspaceOptions, ResolvedPublishPlugin, ResumeWorkspaceReleaseOptions, ScopedPlugins, Workspace, WorkspaceDependency, WorkspacePackage, WorkspaceReleaseOutcome };
+export type { AppliedDependencyBump, CommitStrategy, DependencyBump, DependencyBumpSource, DependencyField, DependencyGraph, DependencyRangeShape, DependencyRangeUpdate, DetachedPackageRelease, PackageManifest, PackagePluginSpecs, PackageReleaseOutcome, PublishPluginPackage, PublishPluginSpec, ReleaseWorkspaceOptions, ResolvedPublishPlugin, ResumeWorkspaceReleaseOptions, ScopedPlugins, Workspace, WorkspaceDependency, WorkspacePackage, WorkspaceReleaseOutcome };

package/dist/index.d.ts

@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ export declare function buildDependencyGraph(packages: readonly WorkspacePackage
  * A cycle has no valid order at all, so it throws rather than picking one of the wrong answers. In a release context an arbitrary order is worse than a failure: it would publish a package whose sibling dependency range points at a version that does not exist yet.
  */
 export declare function topologicalOrder(graph: DependencyGraph): readonly string[];
+/** The packages a release order names, in that order, for the stages that need each package's manifest rather than only its name. */
+export declare function orderedPackages(graph: DependencyGraph, order: readonly string[]): readonly WorkspacePackage[];
 //#endregion
 //#region src/version-range.d.ts
 /**
@@ -149,6 +151,11 @@ interface DependencyBumpSource {
 type PublishPluginSpec = string | readonly [string] | readonly [string, Record<string, unknown>];
 /** Publish plugin lists keyed by package name. Each list replaces the workspace-wide list outright for that one package; it is not merged with it. */
 type PackagePluginSpecs = Readonly<Record<string, readonly PublishPluginSpec[]>>;
+/** All resolving a package's publish plugins needs to know about it: its name, and whether its manifest marks it private. `WorkspacePackage` satisfies this structurally. */
+interface PublishPluginPackage {
+  readonly name: string;
+  readonly private: boolean;
+}
 /** The standard publish pipeline this orchestrator coordinates when a workspace configures none of its own. Every entry reuses the corresponding official plugin -- the orchestrator scopes and sequences them per package, it does not reimplement npm publishing, GitHub release creation, or changelog writing. */
 export declare const DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS: readonly PublishPluginSpec[];
 /** The standard publish pipeline for `commitStrategy: 'single'`: the same as `DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS` minus `@semantic-release/git`, which that mode never runs -- see `resolvePublishPlugins`'s `forbidGitPlugin` option for why it is rejected outright rather than merely unused. Single-commit mode does its own committing (one combined commit for every released package), so a `prepare`-step git plugin here would create the very per-package commits that mode exists to avoid. */
@@ -193,9 +200,13 @@ export declare function resolvePublishPlugins(specs: readonly PublishPluginSpec[
 /**
  * Resolves the publish plugin list of every package in the workspace: the workspace-wide list for each package, except where `packagePlugins` names a package, whose own list replaces it. Every list is held to the same rules as `resolvePublishPlugins` applies to a workspace-wide one, and a failure in an override names the package it belongs to.
  *
+ * A package whose manifest sets `private: true` and which no `packagePlugins` entry names gets the workspace-wide list minus `@semantic-release/github`. A private package is never published, so a public GitHub Release for it advertises something nobody can install, and that release is not merely redundant: `@semantic-release/github` sets `make_latest` from the release branch alone, with no option to opt out, so every release it creates claims the repository's Latest label and the last one created keeps it. A private package sitting at the end of the topological order (which is where a package that depends on the published ones necessarily sits) therefore takes the label on every run. Everything the private package actually needs from the run is untouched: its version bump, its tag, and the dependency cascade to its dependents all come from the other plugins and from the orchestrator itself.
+ *
+ * A `packagePlugins` entry naming a private package is taken exactly as written, `@semantic-release/github` included, so a workspace that does want a Release for a private package can still say so.
+ *
  * A `packagePlugins` key that matches no package is rejected rather than ignored: a misspelt name would otherwise leave the package it meant on the workspace-wide list with nothing to say so, which for the intended use (keeping a package out of a step such as GitHub Release creation) is a silent wrong result.
  */
-export declare function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packageNames: readonly string[], specs: {
+export declare function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packages: readonly PublishPluginPackage[], specs: {
   readonly plugins: readonly PublishPluginSpec[];
   readonly packagePlugins: PackagePluginSpecs | undefined;
 }, workspaceRoot: string, options: {
@@ -246,7 +257,7 @@ interface ReleaseWorkspaceOptions {
   readonly branches?: readonly BranchSpec[];
   /** Publish-pipeline plugins (changelog, npm, GitHub, git), each scoped per package by semantic-release's own `cwd`. Defaults to the standard pipeline in DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS for `commitStrategy: 'per-package'`, or SINGLE_COMMIT_DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS (the same list minus `@semantic-release/git`) for `commitStrategy: 'single'`. */
   readonly plugins?: readonly PublishPluginSpec[];
-  /** Publish plugin lists for individual packages, keyed by package name, each replacing `plugins` (or its default) outright for that package. Every other package keeps the workspace-wide list. The usual use is keeping one package out of a step the rest need, for example leaving `@semantic-release/github` off a private package so it gets its tag, version bump and dependency cascade without a public GitHub Release. Applies under every `commitStrategy` and to `gatePublish`. A name that is not a package in the workspace is rejected. */
+  /** Publish plugin lists for individual packages, keyed by package name, each replacing `plugins` (or its default) outright for that package. Every other package keeps the workspace-wide list, except that a package marked `private` in its manifest drops `@semantic-release/github` from it on its own (see `resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins`), so the usual reason to reach for this is either the reverse of that default, a private package that does want a GitHub Release, or keeping a package out of some other step the rest need. Applies under every `commitStrategy` and to `gatePublish`. A name that is not a package in the workspace is rejected. */
   readonly packagePlugins?: PackagePluginSpecs;
   /** Options for the wrapped `@semantic-release/commit-analyzer`, applied per package after path filtering. */
   readonly analyzeCommits?: Record<string, unknown>;
@@ -260,6 +271,14 @@ interface ReleaseWorkspaceOptions {
    * Opt-in, orthogonal to `commitStrategy` -- it governs *when* publish/success run relative to tag+push, not *how many commits* the release makes. When `true`, each package's release is tagged and pushed via `@exadev/release-gate`'s `detachRelease` but never published: `WorkspaceReleaseOutcome.detached` carries the state `resumeWorkspaceRelease` needs to finish publishing later, from the same process or a different one, once an external gate confirms the release should actually go out. Rejected outright in combination with `commitStrategy: 'single'` -- `single-commit-release.ts`'s tag/publish machinery is entirely bespoke and never goes through semantic-release's own `run()`, so it has no insertion point for `release-gate`'s primitives. Defaults to `false`, today's exact existing behaviour.
    */
   readonly gatePublish?: boolean;
+  /**
+   * Lodash template for each package's release tag, with `${name}` and `${version}` placeholders.
+   * Defaults to `'${name}@${version}'`. Override it when the tags double as refs consumed outside
+   * git: GitHub Actions pins composite actions as `owner/repo/path@ref`, and GitHub's workflow
+   * parser rejects a ref containing `@`, so a repository of actions sets `'${name}-v${version}'`
+   * and pins `...@<action>-v1`. Validated once per run by `validateTagFormat`.
+   */
+  readonly tagFormat?: string;
 }
 /** One dependency-range change applied to a dependent package's manifest during the run, attached to the dependent's own outcome. */
 interface AppliedDependencyBump extends DependencyBump {
@@ -326,4 +345,4 @@ export declare class GitCommandError extends WorkspaceReleaseError {
 /** The workspace's git state does not support the release operation -- for example a detached HEAD, which names no branch that dependency-bump commits could be pushed to. */
 export declare class WorkspaceStateError extends WorkspaceReleaseError {}
 //#endregion
-export type { AppliedDependencyBump, CommitStrategy, DependencyBump, DependencyBumpSource, DependencyField, DependencyGraph, DependencyRangeShape, DependencyRangeUpdate, DetachedPackageRelease, PackageManifest, PackagePluginSpecs, PackageReleaseOutcome, PublishPluginSpec, ReleaseWorkspaceOptions, ResolvedPublishPlugin, ResumeWorkspaceReleaseOptions, ScopedPlugins, Workspace, WorkspaceDependency, WorkspacePackage, WorkspaceReleaseOutcome };
+export type { AppliedDependencyBump, CommitStrategy, DependencyBump, DependencyBumpSource, DependencyField, DependencyGraph, DependencyRangeShape, DependencyRangeUpdate, DetachedPackageRelease, PackageManifest, PackagePluginSpecs, PackageReleaseOutcome, PublishPluginPackage, PublishPluginSpec, ReleaseWorkspaceOptions, ResolvedPublishPlugin, ResumeWorkspaceReleaseOptions, ScopedPlugins, Workspace, WorkspaceDependency, WorkspacePackage, WorkspaceReleaseOutcome };

package/dist/index.js

@@ -578,6 +578,10 @@ function topologicalOrder(graph) {
 	if (pending.size > 0) throw new DependencyCycleError(findCycle(graph, new Set(pending.keys())));
 	return ordered;
 }
+/** The packages a release order names, in that order, for the stages that need each package's manifest rather than only its name. */
+function orderedPackages(graph, order) {
+	return order.map((name) => mustGet(graph.packages, name, "package"));
+}
 /**
 * Walks dependency edges between the packages Kahn's algorithm could not place, until it revisits one, so the error can name a concrete loop rather than just a set of packages. Every unplaced package is unplaced precisely because at least one of its own dependencies is too, so the walk always reaches a repeat.
 */
@@ -656,6 +660,8 @@ function matchTrailerLine(message, key) {
 }
 //#endregion
 //#region src/plugins.ts
+/** The one plugin a private package is kept off by default: see `resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins` for why a package that never reaches a registry does not get a public GitHub Release either. */
+const GITHUB_RELEASE_PLUGIN = "@semantic-release/github";
 /** semantic-release's own `getLastRelease` returns `{}` for a package with no prior tag -- not `undefined`, and not a fully-populated `LastRelease` -- contradicting the `gitHead: string` its own type declares. Narrows structurally rather than trusting that declared type, so a first-release context's `lastRelease` (correctly, at runtime) never claims a `gitHead` it does not have. */
 function hasGitHead(lastRelease) {
 	return typeof lastRelease === "object" && lastRelease !== null && "gitHead" in lastRelease && typeof lastRelease.gitHead === "string";
@@ -782,13 +788,17 @@ function resolvePublishPlugins(specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
 /**
 * Resolves the publish plugin list of every package in the workspace: the workspace-wide list for each package, except where `packagePlugins` names a package, whose own list replaces it. Every list is held to the same rules as `resolvePublishPlugins` applies to a workspace-wide one, and a failure in an override names the package it belongs to.
 *
+* A package whose manifest sets `private: true` and which no `packagePlugins` entry names gets the workspace-wide list minus `@semantic-release/github`. A private package is never published, so a public GitHub Release for it advertises something nobody can install, and that release is not merely redundant: `@semantic-release/github` sets `make_latest` from the release branch alone, with no option to opt out, so every release it creates claims the repository's Latest label and the last one created keeps it. A private package sitting at the end of the topological order (which is where a package that depends on the published ones necessarily sits) therefore takes the label on every run. Everything the private package actually needs from the run is untouched: its version bump, its tag, and the dependency cascade to its dependents all come from the other plugins and from the orchestrator itself.
+*
+* A `packagePlugins` entry naming a private package is taken exactly as written, `@semantic-release/github` included, so a workspace that does want a Release for a private package can still say so.
+*
 * A `packagePlugins` key that matches no package is rejected rather than ignored: a misspelt name would otherwise leave the package it meant on the workspace-wide list with nothing to say so, which for the intended use (keeping a package out of a step such as GitHub Release creation) is a silent wrong result.
 */
-function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packageNames, specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
+function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packages, specs, workspaceRoot, options) {
 	const overrides = specs.packagePlugins === void 0 ? [] : Object.entries(specs.packagePlugins);
-	const known = new Set(packageNames);
+	const known = new Set(packages.map((pkg) => pkg.name));
 	const unknown = overrides.map(([name]) => name).filter((name) => !known.has(name));
-	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins names ${unknown.map((name) => `"${name}"`).join(", ")}, which ${unknown.length === 1 ? "is" : "are"} not a package in this workspace. Packages: ${packageNames.join(", ")}.`);
+	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins names ${unknown.map((name) => `"${name}"`).join(", ")}, which ${unknown.length === 1 ? "is" : "are"} not a package in this workspace. Packages: ${[...known].join(", ")}.`);
 	const workspaceWide = resolvePublishPlugins(specs.plugins, workspaceRoot, options);
 	const resolvedOverrides = /* @__PURE__ */ new Map();
 	for (const [name, list] of overrides) try {
@@ -797,7 +807,9 @@ function resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(packageNames, specs, workspaceRoot, opti
 		if (cause instanceof ReleaseConfigurationError) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`packagePlugins for "${name}": ${cause.message}`);
 		throw cause;
 	}
-	return new Map(packageNames.map((name) => [name, resolvedOverrides.get(name) ?? workspaceWide]));
+	const privateSpecs = specs.plugins.filter((spec) => parsePublishPluginSpec(spec)[0] !== GITHUB_RELEASE_PLUGIN);
+	const forPrivatePackages = privateSpecs.length === specs.plugins.length ? workspaceWide : resolvePublishPlugins(privateSpecs, workspaceRoot, options);
+	return new Map(packages.map((pkg) => [pkg.name, resolvedOverrides.get(pkg.name) ?? (pkg.private ? forPrivatePackages : workspaceWide)]));
 }
 /**
 * Resolves a plugin module name to an absolute file path, first from this tool's own module context (its peer dependencies, which every workspace installing the orchestrator must provide) and then from the workspace root (a workspace's own plugin dependencies, such as a custom changelog plugin). Both bases are named in the error when neither can resolve the name.
@@ -832,6 +844,21 @@ async function regenerateLockfile(options) {
 		throw new PnpmCommandError(options.cwd, detail);
 	}
 }
+/**
+* Validate a caller-supplied tagFormat once per run, before any package releases. The template must contain `${version}` (semantic-release interpolates it; without it every package would compute the same tag and overwrite its predecessor) and may contain `${name}`, which the orchestrator substitutes per package. Any other `${...}` token is a typo or a placeholder semantic-release does not support in tagFormat, so it is rejected here rather than released as a literal into a tag name.
+*/
+function validateTagFormat(tagFormat) {
+	if (!tagFormat.includes("${version}")) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`tagFormat must contain '\${version}' so each package's release tag carries its version; got: ${tagFormat}`);
+	const unknown = [...tagFormat.matchAll(/\$\{([^}]*)\}/g)].map((match) => match[1] ?? "").filter((token) => token !== "name" && token !== "version").filter((token) => token !== "");
+	if (unknown.length > 0) throw new ReleaseConfigurationError(`tagFormat supports only the '\${name}' and '\${version}' placeholders; unknown token(s): ${unknown.map((token) => `\${${token}}`).join(", ")}`);
+	return tagFormat;
+}
+/**
+* Substitute `${name}` for one package. Called per package at release time; the returned template still carries the literal `${version}` for semantic-release to interpolate, exactly as the default `name@version` format always has.
+*/
+function formatTagForPackage(tagFormat, name) {
+	return tagFormat.replaceAll("${name}", name);
+}
 //#endregion
 //#region src/single-commit-release.ts
 /**
@@ -859,7 +886,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order: ${order.join(" -> ")} (commitStrategy: single)`);
-	const resolvedPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const resolvedPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? SINGLE_COMMIT_DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, {
@@ -868,6 +895,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 	});
 	const analyzeCommitsConfig = options.analyzeCommits ?? {};
 	const generateNotesConfig = options.generateNotes ?? {};
+	const tagFormat = validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}");
 	const capturedCommits = /* @__PURE__ */ new Map();
 	const captured = {
 		branch: void 0,
@@ -881,6 +909,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspaceSingleCommit(options) {
 		const bumpsForThisPackage = pendingBumps.get(name) ?? [];
 		pendingBumps.delete(name);
 		const nextRelease = await analysePackage(pkg, {
+			tagFormat,
 			resolvedPlugins: mustGet(resolvedPlugins, name, "publish plugins"),
 			analyzeCommitsConfig,
 			generateNotesConfig,
@@ -1003,7 +1032,7 @@ async function analysePackage(pkg, options) {
 		onCommitsResolved: options.onCommitsResolved
 	});
 	const semanticReleaseOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.resolvedPlugins,
 		dryRun: true,
 		async analyzeCommits(pluginConfig, context) {
@@ -1134,7 +1163,7 @@ async function detachWorkspaceRelease(options) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order (gated -- tag only, publish deferred): ${order.join(" -> ")}`);
-	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, { requireGitPlugin: !dryRun });
@@ -1146,6 +1175,7 @@ async function detachWorkspaceRelease(options) {
 			analyzeCommitsConfig,
 			generateNotesConfig,
 			bumpsForThisPackage,
+			tagFormat: validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}"),
 			dryRun,
 			env,
 			branches: options.branches
@@ -1188,7 +1218,7 @@ async function runPackageDetach(pkg, options) {
 		bumps: { bumpsFor: () => options.bumpsForThisPackage }
 	});
 	const cliOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.publishPlugins,
 		analyzeCommits: scoped.analyzeCommits,
 		generateNotes: scoped.generateNotes
@@ -1275,7 +1305,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspace(options = {}) {
 	validateDependencyRanges(graph);
 	const order = topologicalOrder(graph);
 	log(`${packageName}: ${String(order.length)} packages in release order: ${order.join(" -> ")}`);
-	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(order, {
+	const publishPlugins = resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins(orderedPackages(graph, order), {
 		plugins: options.plugins ?? DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS,
 		packagePlugins: options.packagePlugins
 	}, workspace.root, { requireGitPlugin: !dryRun });
@@ -1285,6 +1315,7 @@ async function releaseWorkspace(options = {}) {
 		order,
 		packages: (await runReleaseLoop(graph, order, workspace, dryRun, log, async (pkg, bumpsForThisPackage) => {
 			const result = await runPackageRelease(pkg, {
+				tagFormat: validateTagFormat(options.tagFormat ?? "${name}@${version}"),
 				publishPlugins: mustGet(publishPlugins, pkg.name, "publish plugins"),
 				analyzeCommitsConfig,
 				generateNotesConfig,
@@ -1366,7 +1397,7 @@ async function runPackageRelease(pkg, options) {
 		bumps: { bumpsFor: () => options.bumpsForThisPackage }
 	});
 	const semanticReleaseOptions = {
-		tagFormat: `${pkg.name}@\${version}`,
+		tagFormat: formatTagForPackage(options.tagFormat, pkg.name),
 		plugins: options.publishPlugins,
 		analyzeCommits: scoped.analyzeCommits,
 		generateNotes: scoped.generateNotes
@@ -1427,4 +1458,4 @@ async function bumpDependents(released, version, graph, options) {
 	return applied;
 }
 //#endregion
-export { DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS, DependencyCycleError, GitCommandError, ReleaseConfigurationError, SINGLE_COMMIT_DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS, UnsupportedDependencyRangeError, WorkspaceDiscoveryError, WorkspaceReleaseError, WorkspaceStateError, buildDependencyGraph, classifyDependencyRange, createScopedPlugins, discoverWorkspace, filterCommitsToDirectory, packageName, readManifest, releaseWorkspace, resolvePublishPlugins, resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins, resumeWorkspaceRelease, topologicalOrder, updateDependencyRange, writeDependencyRange };
+export { DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS, DependencyCycleError, GitCommandError, ReleaseConfigurationError, SINGLE_COMMIT_DEFAULT_PUBLISH_PLUGINS, UnsupportedDependencyRangeError, WorkspaceDiscoveryError, WorkspaceReleaseError, WorkspaceStateError, buildDependencyGraph, classifyDependencyRange, createScopedPlugins, discoverWorkspace, filterCommitsToDirectory, orderedPackages, packageName, readManifest, releaseWorkspace, resolvePublishPlugins, resolveWorkspacePublishPlugins, resumeWorkspaceRelease, topologicalOrder, updateDependencyRange, writeDependencyRange };

package/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@exadev/semantic-release-workspace",
-  "version": "2.1.0",
+  "version": "3.0.0",
   "description": "Independent per-package semantic-release orchestration for pnpm workspaces, without lockstep versioning.",
   "type": "module",
   "repository": {