diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 9dae0d4bd1cd35e2a02f88ac260a4c584fae99ce..af34e2e1109dee4bc79316e3c10fc436a26e4c93 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -133,6 +133,9 @@ jobs:
         SEMANTIC_VERSION: ${{ inputs.semantic_version }}
         DRY_RUN: ${{ inputs.dry_run }}
       run: |
+        set -x
+        # For debugging purposes
+        git status
         # The file was actually changed, we need to commit the changes
         git diff-index --quiet HEAD || { git -c 'user.name=AWS SDK Rust Bot' -c 'user.email=aws-sdk-rust-primary@amazon.com' commit gradle.properties --message "Upgrade the smithy-rs runtime crates version to ${SEMANTIC_VERSION}" && git push origin; }
 
diff --git a/tools/ci-scripts/upgrade-gradle-properties b/tools/ci-scripts/upgrade-gradle-properties
index 20a1dbbf592b775ffbf5dd1e8b611701ea9bb376..0271749bad84d896c0f5f4d6ed3d69c04735d592 100755
--- a/tools/ci-scripts/upgrade-gradle-properties
+++ b/tools/ci-scripts/upgrade-gradle-properties
@@ -12,7 +12,12 @@ ARTIFACTS_DIR="$(pwd)/artifacts/upgrade-gradle-properties"
 mkdir -p "${ARTIFACTS_DIR}"
 
 pushd "${SMITHY_RS_DIR}"
+echo "gradle.properties BEFORE the upgrade"
+cat gradle.properties
 publisher upgrade-runtime-crates-version --version "${SEMANTIC_VERSION}"
+echo "gradle.properties AFTER the upgrade"
+cat gradle.properties
+git status
 popd
 
 # Clone smithy-rs repo changes (changelog updates) into
@@ -21,4 +26,5 @@ pushd "${ARTIFACTS_DIR}"
 git clone "${SMITHY_RS_DIR}"
 # Copy over the original remotes so that it's possible to push to `origin`
 cp "${SMITHY_RS_DIR}/.git/config" smithy-rs/.git/config
+git status
 popd