diff --git a/.github/workflows/_release.yml b/.github/workflows/_release.yml
index 97391e145c3c4..d3d09d642bc0d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_release.yml
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ jobs:
           path: langchain
           sparse-checkout: | # this only grabs files for relevant dir
             ${{ inputs.working-directory }}
-          ref: master # this scopes to just master branch
+          ref: ${{ github.ref }} # this scopes to just ref'd branch
           fetch-depth: 0 # this fetches entire commit history
       - name: Check Tags
         id: check-tags