How to Checkout Tags in Git | Learn Version Control with Git It's much more likely that would like to create a new branch, based on the tag's commit. You can simply add the -b flag and provide a name for the new branch: $ git checkout -b new-branch v2.0. You will then have a brand new branch named "new-branch" that's based on the revision that the "v2.0" tag points at. Tip.