diff --git a/.github/.kodiak.toml b/.github/.kodiak.toml
index ded81e43d9..b64a5f6fc7 100644
--- a/.github/.kodiak.toml
+++ b/.github/.kodiak.toml
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@ strip_html_comments = true # default: false
 always = true # default: false
 
 [approve]
-auto_approve_usernames = ["1gtm", "tamalsaha"]
+auto_approve_usernames = ["tamalsaha", "1gtm", "1gtm-app[bot]"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 8fcd3e711f..4adf11baec 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -23,25 +23,23 @@ jobs:
         k8s: [v1.29.14, v1.31.14, v1.33.7, v1.35.0]
     steps:
       - name: Set up Go 1.25
-        uses: actions/setup-go@v5
+        uses: actions/setup-go@40f1582b2485089dde7abd97c1529aa768e1baff # v5.6.0
         with:
           go-version: '1.25'
         id: go
 
       - name: Check out code into the Go module directory
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4.3.1
 
       - name: Create Kubernetes ${{ matrix.k8s }} cluster
         id: kind
-        uses: engineerd/setup-kind@v0.5.0
+        uses: helm/kind-action@ef37e7f390d99f746eb8b610417061a60e82a6cc # v1.14.0
         with:
           version: v0.31.0
-          image: kindest/node:${{ matrix.k8s }}
+          node_image: kindest/node:${{ matrix.k8s }}
 
       - name: Prepare Host
         run: |
-          sudo apt-get -qq update || true
-          sudo apt-get install -y bzr
           curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/v1.22.0/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl
           chmod +x ./kubectl
           sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yml b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
index 5b68352660..92d6545f6d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
@@ -11,31 +11,28 @@ concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.head_ref || github.ref }}
   cancel-in-progress: true
 
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
 jobs:
   build:
     runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
 
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4.3.1
 
       - name: Configure S3 CLI
         env:
           AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
           AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
-          AWS_S3_ENDPOINT: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_R2_ENDPOINT }}
         run: |
-          echo "install aws cli"
-          sudo apt-get -qq update || true
-          sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip
-          pip3 install awscli
-          echo
-          echo "configure aws credentials"
           aws configure set aws_access_key_id $AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
           aws configure set aws_secret_access_key $AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
           aws configure set region us-east-1
           aws configure set s3.signature_version s3v4
-          aws configure set endpoint_url $AWS_S3_ENDPOINT
 
       - name: Publish icons
+        env:
+          AWS_ENDPOINT_URL: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_R2_ENDPOINT }}
         run: |
           make publish-icons
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-tracker.yml b/.github/workflows/release-tracker.yml
index 4b79b251d7..6be6c21eff 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-tracker.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-tracker.yml
@@ -11,31 +11,25 @@ concurrency:
 
 jobs:
   build:
+    if: github.event.pull_request.merged == true
     runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
 
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4.3.1
 
-      - name: Prepare git
-        env:
-          GITHUB_USER: 1gtm
-          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.LGTM_GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-        run: |
-          git config --global user.name "${GITHUB_USER}"
-          git config --global user.email "${GITHUB_USER}@appscode.com"
-          git remote set-url origin https://${GITHUB_USER}:${GITHUB_TOKEN}@github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}.git
-
-      - name: Install GitHub CLI
-        run: |
-          curl -fsSL https://github.com/github/hub/raw/master/script/get | bash -s 2.14.1
-          sudo mv bin/hub /usr/local/bin
+      - name: Generate LGTM App token
+        id: lgtm-app-token
+        uses: actions/create-github-app-token@bcd2ba49218906704ab6c1aa796996da409d3eb1 # v3.2.0
+        with:
+          client-id: ${{ secrets.LGTM_APP_CLIENT_ID }}
+          private-key: ${{ secrets.LGTM_APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}
+          owner: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
+          repositories: CHANGELOG
+          permission-pull-requests: write
 
       - name: Update release tracker
-        if: |
-          github.event.action == 'closed' &&
-          github.event.pull_request.merged == true
         env:
-          GITHUB_USER: 1gtm
-          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.LGTM_GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          GITHUB_USER: ${{ github.actor }}
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ steps.lgtm-app-token.outputs.token }}
         run: |
           ./hack/scripts/update-release-tracker.sh
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 35ff046af9..8b38b7eb0d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ REGISTRY ?= appscode
 
 # This version-strategy uses git tags to set the version string
 git_branch       := $(shell git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
-git_tag          := $(shell git describe --exact-match --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")
+git_tag          := $(shell git describe --tags --exact-match --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")
 commit_hash      := $(shell git rev-parse --verify HEAD)
 commit_timestamp := $(shell date --date="@$$(git show -s --format=%ct)" --utc +%FT%T)
 
diff --git a/hack/scripts/update-release-tracker.sh b/hack/scripts/update-release-tracker.sh
index 7184cb6fe2..c8bfc4ff20 100755
--- a/hack/scripts/update-release-tracker.sh
+++ b/hack/scripts/update-release-tracker.sh
@@ -69,4 +69,4 @@ case $GITHUB_BASE_REF in
         ;;
 esac
 
-hub api "$api_url" -f body="$msg"
+gh api "$api_url" -f body="$msg"