diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-builtins.yml b/.github/workflows/release-builtins.yml
index 917dd3d..408f9c7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-builtins.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-builtins.yml
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ on:
       tag:
         description: "uap-core ref to release"
         type: string
-        required: true
       environment:
         description: "environment to release for (testpypy or pypy)"
         type: environment
@@ -30,7 +29,7 @@ jobs:
         persist-credentials: false
     - name: update core
       env:
-        TAG: ${{ inputs.tag || 'origin/master '}}
+        TAG: ${{ inputs.tag || 'origin/master' }}
       # needs to detach because we can update to a tag
       run: git -C uap-core switch --detach "$TAG"
     - name: Set up Python