diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 56e68b53f..61c29ab60 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           # Extract the product name (part before the first slash) and version (part after the first slash)
           PRODUCT=$(echo "${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/}" | cut -d'/' -f1)
-          VERSION=$(echo "${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/}" | cut -d'/' -f2)
+          VERSION=$(echo "${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/}" | cut -d'/v' -f2)
 
           # Output extracted values for the rest of the job
           echo "PRODUCT=${PRODUCT}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
@@ -40,5 +40,6 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build the images of all the OC projects
         run: |
           devcontainer exec --workspace-folder ../sage-monorepo bash -c ". ./dev-env.sh \
+            && echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login --username $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin ghcr.io \
             && export VERSION=${{ env.VERSION }} \
             && nx build-image ${{ env.PRODUCT }}-apex --configuration=ci"
diff --git a/apps/openchallenges/apex/project.json b/apps/openchallenges/apex/project.json
index 6f33a0241..fbb03d590 100644
--- a/apps/openchallenges/apex/project.json
+++ b/apps/openchallenges/apex/project.json
@@ -20,21 +20,20 @@
     "build-image": {
       "executor": "@nx-tools/nx-container:build",
       "options": {
-        "context": "{projectRoot}",
-        "metadata": {
-          "images": ["ghcr.io/sage-bionetworks/{projectName}"]
-        },
-        "push": false
+        "context": "{projectRoot}"
       },
       "configurations": {
         "local": {
-          "tags": ["type=edge,branch=main", "type=raw,value=local", "type=sha"]
+          "metadata": {
+            "images": ["ghcr.io/sage-bionetworks/{projectName}"],
+            "tags": ["type=edge,branch=main", "type=raw,value=local", "type=sha"]
+          }
         },
         "ci": {
-          "cache-from": ["type=gha"],
-          "cache-to": ["type=gha,mode=max"],
-          "push": true,
-          "tags": ["type=semver,pattern={{version}},value=${VERSION}", "type=sha"]
+          "metadata": {
+            "images": ["ghcr.io/sage-bionetworks/{projectName}"],
+            "tags": ["type=raw,value=${VERSION}", "type=sha"]
+          }
         }
       },
       "defaultConfiguration": "local"