How to fix fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything in Git

First, verify whether tags exist at all:

git tag -l

If this returns empty, you need to create tags. If it shows tags but git describe still fails, the tags may not be in your current branch's history.

For immediate resolution, use the --always flag which returns an abbreviated commit hash when no tags are found:

git describe --always

This outputs something like "848392c" instead of failing. For more complete output:

git describe --always --tags --dirty

This handles missing tags, includes lightweight tags, and shows if working tree is dirty.

If your repository genuinely needs tags, create an annotated tag:

git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Initial release"

For the current commit, or tag a specific commit:

git tag -a v1.0.0 <commit-hash> -m "Initial release"

Annotated tags (created with -a) are recommended as they're full Git objects with metadata.

If tags exist remotely but not locally, fetch them:

git fetch --tags

Or fetch all remotes with tags:

git fetch --all --tags

Verify tags were fetched with git tag -l.

For GitHub Actions, ensure full history is fetched:

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    fetch-depth: 0  # Fetch all history for all branches and tags

For GitLab CI:

variables:
  GIT_DEPTH: 0

For general Git operations in CI:

git fetch --unshallow --tags

If you have lightweight tags (created without -a), use the --tags flag:

git describe --tags

Or combine with --always for maximum compatibility:

git describe --always --tags