diff --git a/.github/workflows/nightly.yml b/.github/workflows/nightly.yml
index aa7f6c2..10ab91e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/nightly.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/nightly.yml
@@ -99,7 +99,10 @@ jobs:
           exit 0
         elif [[ "$GH_EVENT_NAME" == "push" ]]; then
           LATEST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)
-          if ! [[ git --no-pager log $LATEST_TAG..head --pretty=format:"%s" | grep -v "^chore" ]]; then
+          if [[ git --no-pager log $LATEST_TAG..head --pretty=format:"%s" | grep -v "^chore" ]]; then
+            echo "Push to main, but there are only chore commits since last tag."
+            echo "Not expecting a new release branch";
+          else
             echo "Found non-chore commits on main since last commit; leave unchanged"
             echo "(Expecting release-plz to create a new release branch)"
             echo "base-commit=skip" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"