Github API v4 GraphQL not returning release by tagName

Question

I am attempting to retrieve the release information for a particular version of Django. However, the release is always returning a null response. In the example below, I am trying to retrieve the information for Django's 1.11 release:

import os
import requests

GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN = os.environ['GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN']

def get_release_information():
    query = '''
    {
      repository(owner: "django", name: "django") {
        release(tagName: "1.11") {
          name
          tagName
          createdAt
        }
      }
    }
    '''
    response = requests.post(
        url='https://api.github.com/graphql',
        json={'query': query},
        headers={'Authorization': f'token {GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN}'}
    )
    pprint(response.json())

The above returns:

{
  "data": {
    "repository": {
      "release": null
    }
  }
}

Am I misunderstanding how to perform the GraphQL query? I can get this same query to work on my own personal public repository using the below query for this release:

query = '''
{
  repository(owner: "michaeljohnbarr", name: "django-timezone-utils") {
    release(tagName: "0.13") {
      name
      tagName
      createdAt
    }
  }
}
'''

My personal repository returns the following results:

{
  "data": {
    "repository": {
      "release": {
        "name": "Version 0.13",
        "tagName": "0.13",
        "createdAt": "2018-09-26T00:01:20Z"
      }
    }
  }
}

It doesn't make sense to me that the Github API v4 GraphQL library would treat 2 public repositories differently. My Github access token that I am using has full permissions to everything; I have a check in all possible permissions and sub-permissions.

Update: (2019-09-14) There is a support forum for the Github's GraphQL API. I found this thread which identifies the same issue and have posted there as well.

Answer 1

https://stackoverflow.com/a/35062729/2693385 is the actual answer to this question. It also led me to the forum post in Github.

The issue is that when an author creates a tag, it creates a "release point" (a temporary placeholder in the UI for releases) but not a release. In order for it to become a release, the author would have to add notes to the release through the UI or API.

The forum post in Github says:

As that StackOverflow answer relates, each tag creates a release point but does not actually create a release. Releases themselves are created when you add release notes to a tag. However, as you noted, tags that don't have a release associated with them do still show up on the releases tab, albeit in a very different style. I can see how this could be confusing.

I've logged your feature request in our internal feature request list. Though I can't guarantee anything or share a timeline for this, I can tell you that it's been shared with the appropriate teams for consideration.