diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yaml b/.github/workflows/publish.yaml
index 5ec3c656..a05cc0a7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yaml
@@ -4,10 +4,10 @@ on:
   push:
     # tags should be in a release branch
     branches:
-      - main
-      - ?.* # e.g. 1.20
+      - 'main'
+      - '1.[0-9]+' # e.g. 1.20
     tags:
-      - v*+mc* # e.g. v1.2.3+mc1.20.4
+      - 'v*[+]mc*' # e.g. v1.2.3+mc1.20.4
 
 # Only allow running one build job at a time to optimise cache hits
 concurrency: