From 1c349e2703ec569c6ec11d94418dcdb6246d2805 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Abhijeet Prasad <abhijeet@braintrustdata.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2026 10:49:23 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix(release): allow empty distribution repositories

---
 .github/workflows/_release.yml | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/_release.yml b/.github/workflows/_release.yml
index 6d58f8ad..315621c5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_release.yml
@@ -138,6 +138,8 @@ jobs:
           if output="$(gh api "repos/$DIST_REPO/git/ref/tags/$DIST_TAG" 2>&1)"; then
             echo "::error::tag $DIST_TAG already exists in $DIST_REPO."
             exit 1
+          elif [[ "$output" == *"Git Repository is empty."* && "$output" == *"HTTP 409"* ]]; then
+            echo "::notice::$DIST_REPO is empty; no distribution release tag exists yet."
           elif [[ "$output" != *"HTTP 404"* ]]; then
             printf '%s\n' "$output" >&2
             exit 1