Release zips

If you need to distribute source zip files containing a recursively cloned working directory of your repo (such as we do for ESP-IDF), then this action can automatically create one and attach it to a draft release whenever a matching tag is pushed.

The difference between this zip file and the automatic zip file that GitHub allows you to download from any tag or release is:

• This zip file is a recursive clone that includes all submodules.
• This zip file is a valid Git working directory

Creating a Release

If a Release already exists for the given tag, then the zip file is attached to it. Otherwise, a placeholder Draft release is created and the zip file is attached to that.

If the tag contains - then a new Draft is marked as Pre-release and this is also mentioned in the title. The naming scheme for a new draft is based on ESP-IDF, and is $RELEASE_PROJECT_NAME [Pre-release|Release] $TAG. Both these things can be edited before publishing the new release.

Inputs

Name	Description	Required	Default
github_token	GitHub token to authenticate release and clone operations	Yes	–
release_project_name	Project name used in release title	No	repository name
git_extra_args	Extra arguments passed to git clone (e.g. --shallow-since="1 year ago")	No	""

Example Workflow yaml file

name: Create recursive zip file for release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v*

jobs:
  release_zips:
    name: Create release zip files
    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
    steps:
      - name: Create a recursive clone source zip for a Release
        uses: espressif/release-zips-action@v1
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          release_project_name: ESP-IDF
          git_extra_args: --shallow-since="1 year ago"

• Note the tags filter for push, this limits the tag patterns for which a zip file should be created.
• release_project_name is the name that will be used in the Draft Release title. The format is: $RELEASE_PROJECT_NAME [Pre-release|Release] $TAG
• github_token is used to authenticate the GitHub API (for creating releases) and to clone private submodules if needed. The token is not stored in the resulting working directory.
• git_extra_args is passed to git clone, so you can use it to limit the history of the clone. This is useful if you have a large repo and want to limit the size of the zip file. For example, --shallow-since="1 year ago" will only include commits from the last year.