Well the default tag for a snapshot release should be early-access unless project.snapshot.label were to be overridden. What does mvn jreleaser:config show in the project and release sections?

I changed it because it was doing weird things on the releases page on github. after some thrashing, i think i'm narrowing down on a workable set up. I'm not a fan of the tagging of the snapshots but i have actions configured to ignore those tags now at least. because I do a build for every push and then a release of that snapshot build, that extra tag was resulting in an extra CI run because the tag is also a trigger. (I also just (re)discovered skipTag which is probably what I actually want.)

I'm still seeing multiple releases which is a bit of a bummer. Honestly, I only want those built on a release build but there's no way to specify <active>RELEASE</active> like there is on other groups. Adding that, i think, would eliminate 90% of my thrashing. :)

Actually if restructure my pom a bit I can parameterize skipRelease...

Snapshot releases must be tagged as tags are a prerequisite for creating a GitHub release. What may happen in your CI setup is skipping a release if it's snapshot. Here's the reverse setup: early-access builds are only run if the version is snapshot https://github.com/jreleaser/helloworld-java-bin/blob/main/.github/workflows/early-access.yml

GH releases only need a git hash, actually, but that's beside the point. I think the skipRelease element will get me there with a little gymnastics but having that active element would be far better. And more consistent. But I'll work with what I've got.