diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 638b534..c39a904 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
+          ref: ${{ inputs.ref }}
           fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Validate tag does not exist on current commit
         uses: ./.github/workflows/validate-tag
@@ -51,6 +52,12 @@ jobs:
             echo "Tag should match pom.xml project.version"
             exit 1
           fi
+      - name: Validate version is a release version
+        run: |
+          if [[ "$(./mvnw -q help:evaluate -Dexpression=project.version -DforceStdout)" =~ "-SNAPSHOT" ]]; then
+            echo "This is a snapshot version"
+            exit 1
+          fi
 
   release:
     name: Release
diff --git a/.github/workflows/snapshot.yml b/.github/workflows/snapshot.yml
index 26eaa79..13add95 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/snapshot.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/snapshot.yml
@@ -13,10 +13,27 @@ on:
         type: boolean
 
 jobs:
+  validate:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    outputs:
+      is-snapshot: ${{ steps.validate.outputs.is-snapshot }}
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: Validate version is a snapshot version
+        id: validate
+        run: |
+          output=false
+          if [[ "$(./mvnw -q help:evaluate -Dexpression=project.version -DforceStdout)" =~ "-SNAPSHOT" ]]; then
+            echo "This is a snapshot version"
+            output=true
+          fi
+          echo "is-snapshot=$output" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+
   deploy:
     name: Deploy
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-
+    needs: validate
+    if: ${{ contains(needs.validate.outputs.is-snapshot, 'true') }}
     steps:
       - id: buildkite
         name: Run Deploy