diff --git a/.github/actions/bump-versions/action.yml b/.github/actions/bump-versions/action.yml
index 5b90a82002a..3016b5d03df 100644
--- a/.github/actions/bump-versions/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/bump-versions/action.yml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ runs:
         NEW_VERSION: ${{ inputs.new-version }}
       run: |
         # bump2version 1.0.1 has a bug: https://github.com/c4urself/bump2version/issues/214
-        if [[ "$(cd python/ ; python -c 'import pynessie; print(pynessie.__version__)')" != ${NEW_VERSION} ]] ; then
+        if [[ "$(python -c 'import pynessie; print(pynessie.__version__)')" != ${NEW_VERSION} ]] ; then
           bump2version --no-commit --no-tag --allow-dirty --new-version ${NEW_VERSION} minor
           # Call into pynessie to ensure bump2version didn't mess up anything
           echo "pynessie at release-version $(python -c 'import pynessie; print(pynessie.__version__)')"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-create.yml b/.github/workflows/release-create.yml
index 8bd6e6599e9..2884f814012 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-create.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-create.yml
@@ -211,7 +211,8 @@ jobs:
 
     - name: Get next patch version
       run: |
-        echo "NEXT_VERSION=$(cat version.txt)" >> ${GITHUB_ENV}
+        NEXT_VERSION="$(cat version.txt)"
+        echo "NEXT_VERSION=${NEXT_VERSION}" >> ${GITHUB_ENV}
         echo "NEXT_VERSION_NO_SNAPSHOT=${NEXT_VERSION%-SNAPSHOT}" >> ${GITHUB_ENV}
 
     # Record the next development iteration in Git