Git Tag Explained — Creating and Pushing Tags

So far, we’ve seen how to create and delete branches in Git.
Now let’s move to another important concept: Git tags.

Tags are used to mark important points in your project’s history, like releases or milestones.
Think of them as bookmarks in a book — when you want to quickly come back to a specific point, you place a tag there.

Why Use Git Tags?

Imagine you are working on a project:

  • At first, you release the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) — a basic version of your app.
  • Later, you add a subscribe feature for users.
  • Then you add email notifications.

At each important stage, you want to mark the commit so that you can always come back to it.
👉 That’s where Git tags help.

Creating a Tag

You can create a lightweight tag on the current commit:

git tag v0.1

👉 This attaches a tag named v0.1 to the current commit.

Check commits with tags:

git log --oneline

Output:

a1b2c3d (HEAD -> main, tag: v0.1) Added product.txt
f9e8d7c Initial commit

✅ The commit now shows the v0.1 tag.

Visual Representation



The tag v0.1 is pointing to commit 2.




Pushing Tags to GitHub


By default, when you push, tags are not pushed automatically.


Push a single tag:


git push origin v0.1



Push all tags:


git push origin --tags



👉 After pushing, you’ll see the tags under the Releases section in GitHub.




Listing All Tags


To see all the tags in your repository:


git tag



👉 Output:


v0.1
v1.1
v1.2





Types of Tags in Git


Git supports two types of tags:


    

  1. 

    Lightweight Tag
    

      

    • A simple pointer to a commit.
      • 

    • Created with git tag v0.1.
      • 

    • Like a quick bookmark.
      • 

    

    2. 

  2. 

    Annotated Tag
    

      

    • Stores extra information like author, date, and a tagging message.
      • 

    • Created with git tag -a v1.0 -m "Release 1.0".
      • 

    • Recommended for releases.
      • 

    

    3. 



👉 In this blog, we covered lightweight tags.
We’ll dive into annotated tags in the next post.




Summary


    

  • Git tags are like bookmarks for important commits.
    • 

  • Use git tag <name> to create a tag.
    • 

  • Push tags with git push origin <tag> or git push origin --tags.
    • 

  • git tag lists all tags in the repo.
    • 

  • Two types of tags: Lightweight and Annotated.
    • 





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