Fix: use inputs.branch in checkout and guard head_commit.message for workflow_dispatch

Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/cloudengine-labs/devops_os/sessions/173bdd11-b657-4dcd-8aa5-d0306d8fc88d

Co-authored-by: chefgs <7605658+chefgs@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: Copilot

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -26,16 +26,17 @@ jobs:
     # references the release/vX.Y.Z branch name.
     if: >-
       github.actor != 'github-actions[bot]' &&
-      !contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]') &&
-      !(startsWith(github.event.head_commit.message, 'Merge pull request') &&
-        contains(github.event.head_commit.message, 'release/v'))
+      !contains(github.event.head_commit.message || '', '[skip ci]') &&
+      !(startsWith(github.event.head_commit.message || '', 'Merge pull request') &&
+        contains(github.event.head_commit.message || '', 'release/v'))
 
     steps:
       - name: Checkout repository (full history for tagging)
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           fetch-depth: 0
+          ref: ${{ inputs.branch }}
 
       - name: Set up Python
         uses: actions/setup-python@v5