How to fix error: tag 'v1.0.0' not found / remote rejected (pre-receive hook declined) in Git

Before deleting, confirm the tag exists and check its exact spelling:

# List local tags
git tag

# List remote tags
git ls-remote --tags origin

# Search for a specific pattern
git tag -l "v1.*"

Tag names are case-sensitive. A tag named V1.0 is different from v1.0.

To delete a tag from your local repository:

git tag -d <tagname>

Example:

git tag -d v1.0.0

If you get "tag not found", the tag may only exist on the remote. Fetch it first:

git fetch --tags
git tag -d v1.0.0

To delete a tag from the remote repository:

git push --delete origin <tagname>

Example:

git push --delete origin v1.0.0

If this fails with an ambiguity error (tag name matches a branch), use the explicit refs syntax:

git push origin :refs/tags/v1.0.0

This explicitly specifies you're deleting a tag, not a branch.

When a tag and branch have the same name, Git cannot determine which one to delete:

error: dst refspec v1.0.0 matches more than one

Solution: Use the full refs path to specify the tag explicitly:

# Delete the tag (not the branch)
git push origin :refs/tags/v1.0.0

# Or delete both if needed
git push origin :refs/tags/v1.0.0 :refs/heads/v1.0.0

If you see "pre-receive hook declined" or "You don't have permission", the tag may be protected.

For GitLab:
1. Go to Settings > Repository > Protected tags
2. Find and unprotect the tag, or
3. Delete via GitLab UI: Repository > Tags > Delete button (requires Maintainer role)

For GitHub:
1. Go to Settings > Branches (note: GitHub protects tags through branch rules for matching refs)
2. Check tag protection rules
3. Delete via GitHub UI: Releases > Delete the associated release and tag

Protected tags are intentional security features to prevent accidental deletion of release tags.

If tags were deleted on the remote but still appear locally, prune stale tags:

# Fetch and prune tags not on remote
git fetch --prune --prune-tags

# Or configure automatic pruning
git config fetch.pruneTags true

To manually remove all local tags and re-fetch from remote:

git tag -l | xargs git tag -d
git fetch --tags

To delete several tags in one command:

# Delete multiple local tags
git tag -d tag1 tag2 tag3

# Delete multiple remote tags
git push --delete origin tag1 tag2 tag3

To delete all tags matching a pattern:

# Delete all local v1.x tags
git tag -l "v1.*" | xargs git tag -d

# Delete all matching remote tags
git tag -l "v1.*" | xargs -I {} git push --delete origin {}

If git ls-remote shows the tag but deletion fails with "non-existent ref", your fetch and push URLs may differ:

git remote -v

If they point to different servers, fix the configuration:

# Set both URLs to the same location
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/user/repo.git
git remote set-url --push origin https://github.com/user/repo.git