diff --git a/.github/workflows/rpm-build.yml b/.github/workflows/rpm-build.yml
index 03aa43b..44c8a71 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/rpm-build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/rpm-build.yml
@@ -138,10 +138,11 @@ jobs:
       # yamllint disable-line rule:line-length
       REPO_PATH: /scratch/job_repos/daos-stack/job/${{ inputs.NAME }}/job/PR-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}/
     steps:
-      - name: Checkout code
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-        with:
-          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
+      # do we actually need a checkout here?
+      # - name: Checkout code
+      #   uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      #   with:
+      #     ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
       - name: Create lastBuild and lastSuccessfulBuild symlinks
         run: |
              mkdir -p ${REPO_PATH}