diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yaml b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
index aef04229..f82149e0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ on:
       - "v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]"
       - "v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]-pre[0-9]+"
 
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
 jobs:
   build:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@@ -29,14 +31,18 @@ jobs:
       - name: Set up Go
         uses: actions/setup-go@v5
         with:
-          go-version: '>=1.22.2'
+          go-version: ">=1.22.2"
+
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           fetch-depth: 0
-      
+
+      - name: Download kpt CLI
+        run: mkdir -p bin && curl -v -o bin/kpt https://github.com/kptdev/kpt/releases/download/v1.0.0-beta.55/kpt_linux_amd64 && chmod +x bin/kpt
+
       - name: Build porch blueprint
-        run: IMAGE_REPO=docker.io/nephio IMAGE_TAG=${{ github.ref_name }} make deployment-config
+        run: PATH=./bin:$PATH IMAGE_REPO=docker.io/nephio IMAGE_TAG=${{ github.ref_name }} make deployment-config
 
       - name: Run GoReleaser
         id: run-goreleaser