Ansible github_packages

The community.general.github_release Ansible role is part of the ansible-collections/community.general code.

Its source code source_control/github/github_release.py shows that is is using github3.py, the library for using GitHub's REST API.
Specifically, the latest_release endpoint (code here) uses the GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases/latest REST API.

However, a "Package Release" is, for github3.py (used by the Ansible role), an asset, with an ID you can find in a github3.repos.release.Release: the original_assets will give you all the assets id.

You would therefore need to write a role similar to latest_release, using the version returned by latest_release in order to call github3.repos.release.Release, get the assets ID and download the one you need using asset(asset_id)

You can use Github GraphQL API (as shown in this question and this one) such as:

  #
  # Tasks that may be included in an Ansible playbook or role depending on your needs
  #

  # Some variables to define to identify your repository
  # They may be set as playbook or role variables as well
  # You'll need a Bearer token (see https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token)
  - set_fact:
      bearer_token: YOUR_BEARER_TOKEN
      repository_name: repository-name
      repository_owner: repository-owner

  - name: Retrieve packages for repository
    uri:
      url: https://api.github.com/graphql
      method: POST
      body: '{"query":
          "query { repository(name: \"{{ repository_name }}\", owner: \"{{ repository_owner }}\") {
            packages(first:10) { nodes { name, packageType, latestVersion {
              version, files(first:100) { nodes { url } }
            } } }
          }
        }"'
      headers:
        Content-Type: application/json
        Accept: "application/vnd.github.packages-preview+json"
        Authorization: "bearer {{ bearer_token }}"
    register: github_packages_json

This will provide an output like:

  {
    "json": {
        "data": {
            "repository": {
                "packages": {
                    "nodes": [
                        {
                            "latestVersion": {
                                "files": {
                                    "nodes": [
                                        {
                                            "url": "https://pkg.githubusercontent.com/xxx/some-url"
                                        },
                                        {
                                            "url": "https://pkg.githubusercontent.com/xxx/another-url"
                                        }
                                    ]
                                },
                                "version": "my-package-1.2.3"
                            },
                            "name": "my-package",
                            "packageType": "DOCKER"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        }
    },
}

Depending on packageType you may need to perform different action. For example, a DOCKER packageType would require you to pull the image such as:

  - name: pull docker
    shell: docker pull docker.pkg.github.com/{{ repository_owner | lower }}/{{ repository_name }}/{{ docker_image_name }}:{{ docker_image_version }}
    vars:
      docker_image_name: "{{ github_packages_json.json.data.repository.packages.nodes[0].name }}"
      docker_image_version: "{{ github_packages_json.json.data.repository.packages.nodes[0].latestVersion.version }}"