actions/create-release: Create a GitHub Release (Legacy)

create-release is the original official release action. It is archived; new workflows use a maintained alternative.

It creates a release from a tag and outputs an upload URL. Because it is archived and cannot upload assets on its own, softprops/action-gh-release is the common modern replacement.

Key inputs (with:)

tag_name: the tag to release.
release_name: the release title.
body: release notes.
draft / prerelease: visibility flags.

Example workflow

.github/workflows/ci.yml

on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']
jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/create-release@v1
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        with:
          tag_name: ${{ github.ref_name }}
          release_name: ${{ github.ref_name }}

Prefer the maintained action

For new work, use softprops/action-gh-release, which uploads assets and generates notes in one step.

Key takeaways

create-release is archived and asset upload needs a second action.
It outputs an upload_url for upload-release-asset.
Prefer softprops/action-gh-release for new workflows.