> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://zerv.wisl.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

> ## Agent Instructions
> zerv is a CLI tool that generates version strings from Git state. It is not a service or platform.
> Examples on this site are backed by integration tests; copy them verbatim.
> Flag names are exact: use --output-template, and --dirty takes no value.

# No version tags are reachable from HEAD

> zerv error: No version tags are reachable from HEAD — no tag to version from. Tag the repo, seed --tag-version, or fetch full history in CI.

```
Error: No version tags are reachable from HEAD
```

zerv versions every build relative to the latest tag reachable from `HEAD`. A repository —
or branch — with no tags has no base version, so zerv stops instead of inventing `0.0.0`.

## Reproduce

Any commit in a repo that has no tags yet:

```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
zerv version --source git
# Error: No version tags are reachable from HEAD
```

## Fix

* **Create the first tag**: `git tag v0.1.0 && git push origin v0.1.0`
* **Seed the base version explicitly** when tagging is not yours to do:
  `zerv flow --tag-version "v0.1.0"`
* **In CI, check out with full history**: a shallow clone (`fetch-depth: 1`) can cut the tags
  off. zerv's [reusable workflow](/cicd/github-actions) uses `fetch-depth: 0` for exactly
  this reason.

See the [version CLI](/cli/version) for every override that can stand in for VCS-detected
values. Not this error? Every fix lives on
[zerv errors and troubleshooting](/troubleshooting).