nx release publish fails when package exists but no latest tag is pushed yet

[thdk]

Current Behavior

❌ > nx run @thdk/lib-c:nx-release-publish
  
  Something unexpected went wrong when checking for existing dist-tags.
   SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input
      at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
      at runExecutor (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/@nx/js/src/executors/release-publish/release-publish.impl.js:[119](https://github.com/thdk/nx-monorepo-demo/actions/runs/14263132694/job/39978988948#step:8:121):37)
      at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
      at async promiseToIterator (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/src/command-line/run/run.js:36:11)
      at async getLastValueFromAsyncIterableIterator (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/src/utils/async-iterator.js:15:19)
      at async iteratorToProcessStatusCode (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/src/command-line/run/run.js:39:25)
      at async handleErrors (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/src/utils/handle-errors.js:8:24)
      at async process.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/bin/run-executor.js:59:28)


 NX   Running target nx-release-publish for project @thdk/lib-c failed

When I manually run the command to fetch dist tags for my npm package I get indeed nothing returned. Which is not valid json.

# exits without returning anything
npm view @thdk/lib-c versions dist-tags --json --"@thdk:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com"

See releated npm issues:

• [BUG] npm view package@latest exits with code 0 and no output if latest tag does not exist npm/cli#6408
• [BUG] npm view/show result is empty if "latest" tag does not exist npm/cli#4029

Expected Behavior

Either a proper error message or continue as if the package doesn't exist or doesn't have any dist tags?

GitHub Repo

No response

Steps to Reproduce

• publish a new package with dist-tag next
• ensure no latest tag exists for the package
• publish a the same package again

Nx Report

NX   Report complete - copy this into the issue template

Node           : 22.2.0
OS             : darwin-arm64
Native Target  : aarch64-macos
npm            : 10.8.0

nx                     : 20.7.1
@nx/js                 : 20.7.1
@nx/jest               : 20.7.1
@nx/eslint             : 20.7.1
@nx/workspace          : 20.7.1
@nx/devkit             : 20.7.1
@nx/esbuild            : 20.7.1
@nx/eslint-plugin      : 20.7.1
@nx/module-federation  : 20.7.1
@nx/node               : 20.7.1
@nx/react              : 20.7.1
@nx/vite               : 20.7.1
@nx/web                : 20.7.1
typescript             : 5.7.3
---------------------------------------
Registered Plugins:
@nx/js/typescript
@nx/eslint/plugin
@nx/jest/plugin
@nx/react/router-plugin
@nx/vite/plugin
---------------------------------------
Cache Usage: 209.37 KB / 46.04 GB

Failure Logs

❌ > nx run @thdk/lib-c:nx-release-publish
  
  Something unexpected went wrong when checking for existing dist-tags.
   SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input
      at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
      at runExecutor (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/@nx/js/src/executors/release-publish/release-publish.impl.js:[119](https://github.com/thdk/nx-monorepo-demo/actions/runs/14263132694/job/39978988948#step:8:121):37)
      at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
      at async promiseToIterator (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/src/command-line/run/run.js:36:11)
      at async getLastValueFromAsyncIterableIterator (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/src/utils/async-iterator.js:15:19)
      at async iteratorToProcessStatusCode (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/src/command-line/run/run.js:39:25)
      at async handleErrors (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/src/utils/handle-errors.js:8:24)
      at async process.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/nx-monorepo-demo/nx-monorepo-demo/node_modules/nx/bin/run-executor.js:59:28)


 NX   Running target nx-release-publish for project @thdk/lib-c failed

Package Manager Version

No response

Operating System

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• Linux
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Additional Information

No response