Why can't I use a YAML anchor for a tags pipeline?

[Paul S]

When I have the following in my pipelines file, there is an error when the pipeline runs or if I try to run it:

tags: # Pipelines that will be triggered when a tag is pushed
  '*.*.*':
    - step: *publish-package

with the error 

But it works with:

tags: # Pipelines that will be triggered when a tag is pushed
  '*.*.*':
    - step:
        script:
          - echo "TAGS"

The documentation 

https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/step-options/#The-Step-property is  confusing because it insists that the script property is required, yet it works perfectly without for some pipeline:

branches: # Pipelines that run automatically on a commit to a specific branch, can also be triggered manually
  '**': # This runs as default on all branches
    - step: *build-and-test

What's going on?

[Paul S · Accepted solution]

After many hours of banging my head against the wall, I finally got to the bottom of this.

Turns out that one of the script lines for the publish-package step was

- git commit -m "Next Snapshot: ${PACKAGE_VERSION}"

Take careful note of the ':' within the delimited string - that was the offending character in the file. Once I removed the ':' all was well.

Nice bug. 

[Paul S]

Only 5 years old: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Bitbucket-questions/Using-quot-quot-in-bitbucket-pipelines/qaq-p/997821