diff --git a/synthtool/gcp/templates/node_library/.github/workflows/ci.yaml b/synthtool/gcp/templates/node_library/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
index 558095914..dfca6dacc 100644
--- a/synthtool/gcp/templates/node_library/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/synthtool/gcp/templates/node_library/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 on:
   push:
     branches:
-      - default-branch
+      - $default-branch
   pull_request:
 name: ci
 jobs: