Python version of https://gist.github.com/lukechilds/a83e1d7127b78fef38c2914c4ececc3c

get_latest_release.py

import argparse
import requests

def parse_arg():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Get latest release of a project from a specified repository.')
    parser.add_argument('-r', '--repo', required=True, help='repository with release - i.e. python3 get_latest_release.py -r \'docker/compose\'')
    return parser.parse_args().repo

def get_latest_release(repo):
    req = requests.get("https://api.github.com/repos/%s/releases/latest" % repo)
    return req.json()['tag_name']

print(get_latest_release(parse_arg()))

# Usage
# python3 get_latest_version.py --repo 'docker/compose'
# 1.22.0
# Tested with 3.5.2 and 3.6.5