How to Delete Git Tags (Local and Remote)

31 Jan 2021 •

Git tags are typically used to mark specific points in a repository’s history as being important, most commonly for releases (v1.0, v2.0). However, mistakes happen, and sometimes you need to remove a tag that was created in error.

Here is a quick cheat sheet for managing and deleting tags.

1. Delete a Local Tag

This removes the tag from your local machine only. It does not affect the server.

git tag -d <tag_name>

# Example:
# git tag -d v0.0.1

2. Delete a Remote Tag

This removes the tag from the remote repository (e.g., GitHub, GitLab).

git push --delete origin <tag_name>

# Example:
# git push --delete origin v0.0.1

3. Delete All Local Tags

This is useful if your local tags are completely out of sync with the remote and you want to start fresh.

git tag -d $(git tag -l)

4. Delete All Remote Tags

Warning: This is destructive and will remove every release tag from your remote repository. Use with extreme caution.

git push origin --delete $(git tag -l)

5. Fetch Remote Tags

After deleting your local tags, you often want to re-sync with the remote to get the “correct” list of tags.

git fetch --tags