diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e.yml b/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
index bb7308580..73e40e913 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
@@ -18,12 +18,12 @@ jobs:
 
       # the soroban CLI & RPC source code to compile and run from system test
       # refers to checked out source of current git hub ref context
-      SYSTEM_TEST_SOROBAN_CLI_REF: ${{ github.workspace }}
-      SYSTEM_TEST_SOROBAN_RPC_REF: https://github.com/stellar/soroban-rpc.git
+      SYSTEM_TEST_SOROBAN_CLI_REF: ${{ github.workspace }}/soroban-cli
+      SYSTEM_TEST_SOROBAN_RPC_REF: https://github.com/stellar/soroban-rpc.git#v20.3.3
 
       # core git ref should be latest commit for stable soroban functionality
       # the core bin can either be compiled in-line here as part of ci,
-      SYSTEM_TEST_CORE_GIT_REF: https://github.com/stellar/stellar-core.git#v20.1.0
+      SYSTEM_TEST_CORE_GIT_REF: https://github.com/stellar/stellar-core.git#v20.2.0
       SYSTEM_TEST_CORE_COMPILE_CONFIGURE_FLAGS: "--disable-tests"
       # or set SYSTEM_TEST_CORE_GIT_REF to empty, and set SYSTEM_TEST_CORE_IMAGE
       # to pull a pre-compiled image from dockerhub instead
@@ -45,45 +45,43 @@ jobs:
       SYSTEM_TEST_JS_STELLAR_SDK_GH_REF: 
 
       # the version of rs-stellar-xdr to use for quickstart
-      SYSTEM_TEST_RS_XDR_GIT_REF: v20.0.2
+      SYSTEM_TEST_RS_XDR_GIT_REF: v20.1.0
 
-      # system test will build quickstart image internally to use for running the service stack
-      # configured in standalone network mode(core, rpc)
-      SYSTEM_TEST_QUICKSTART_GIT_REF: https://github.com/stellar/quickstart.git#412bb828ddb4a93745227ab5ad97c623d43f3a5f
+      # system test will build quickstart image internally to use for running
+      # the service stack configured in standalone network mode(core, rpc)
+      SYSTEM_TEST_QUICKSTART_GIT_REF: https://github.com/stellar/quickstart.git#eeb44ee99c564275654800edea2e426d73e966b8
 
       # triggers system test to log out details from quickstart's logs and test steps
       SYSTEM_TEST_VERBOSE_OUTPUT: "true"
 
       # the soroban test cases will compile various contracts from the examples repo
-      SYSTEM_TEST_SOROBAN_EXAMPLES_GIT_HASH: "v20.0.0"
+      SYSTEM_TEST_SOROBAN_EXAMPLES_GIT_HASH: "782458d31395b0191ac40c9572ac53f13f573aa3"
       SYSTEM_TEST_SOROBAN_EXAMPLES_GIT_REPO: "https://github.com/stellar/soroban-examples.git"
+
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        name: checkout current pr source
+        with:
+          path: soroban-cli
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         name: checkout system-test
         with:
           repository: stellar/system-test
           ref: ${{ env.SYSTEM_TEST_GIT_REF }}
           path: system-test
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
-        name: checkout soroban-tools
-        with:
-          repository: stellar/soroban-tools
-          path: soroban-tools
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
-        name: checkout soroban-rpc
-        with:
-          repository: stellar/soroban-rpc
-          path: soroban-rpc
+
       - if: ${{ env.SYSTEM_TEST_JS_STELLAR_SDK_GH_REPO != ''}}
         name: prepare local js-stellar-sdk
         run: |
           rm -rf $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/system-test/js-stellar-sdk;
+
       - if: ${{ env.SYSTEM_TEST_JS_STELLAR_SDK_GH_REPO != ''}}
-        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           repository: ${{ env.SYSTEM_TEST_JS_STELLAR_SDK_GH_REPO }}
           ref: ${{ env.SYSTEM_TEST_JS_STELLAR_SDK_GH_REF }}
           path: system-test/js-stellar-sdk
+
       - uses: stellar/actions/rust-cache@main
       - name: Build system test with component versions
         run: |
@@ -104,6 +102,7 @@ jobs:
             QUICKSTART_GIT_REF=$SYSTEM_TEST_QUICKSTART_GIT_REF \
             JS_STELLAR_SDK_NPM_VERSION=$JS_STELLAR_SDK_REF \
             build
+
       - name: Run system test scenarios
         run: |
           docker run --rm -t --name e2e_test stellar/system-test:dev \