diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-images.yaml b/.github/workflows/build-images.yaml
index c1c9d9d6f..1b12e03bd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-images.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-images.yaml
@@ -340,7 +340,7 @@ jobs:
           file: neonvm-daemon/Dockerfile
           cache-from: type=registry,ref=cache.neon.build/neonvm-daemon:cache
           cache-to: ${{ github.ref_name == 'main' && 'type=registry,ref=cache.neon.build/neonvm-daemon:cache,mode=max' || '' }}
-          tags: ${{ needs.tags.outputs.daemon }}
+          tags: ${{ steps.tags.outputs.daemon }}
           build-args: |
             GO_BASE_IMG=${{ env.GO_BASE_IMG }}
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-test-vm.yaml b/.github/workflows/build-test-vm.yaml
index 696d76f41..e3f95a3e7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-test-vm.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-test-vm.yaml
@@ -52,9 +52,10 @@ jobs:
   build:
     # nb: use format(..) to catch both inputs.skip = true AND inputs.skip = 'true'.
     if: ${{ format('{0}', inputs.skip) != 'true' }}
-    needs: tags
     runs-on: [ self-hosted, gen3, large ]
-
+    outputs:
+      vm-postgres-16-bullseye: ${{ steps.show-tags.outputs.vm-postgres-16-bullseye }}
+      daemon: ${{ steps.show-tags.outputs.daemon }}
     steps:
       # tags converted to be a step and moved here to be in the same strategy contextt
       - id: tags