diff --git a/default.xml b/default.xml
index b610447..26c016f 100644
--- a/default.xml
+++ b/default.xml
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@
 <!-- Used by OpenContrail CI jobs -->
 <project name="contrail-fabric-utils" remote="github" revision="R5.0" path="third_party/fabric-utils" />
 <project name="contrail-dpdk" remote="github" revision="contrail_dpdk_17_02" path="third_party/dpdk" />
-<project name="contrail-specs" remote="github" revision="R5.0" path="contrail-specs" />
+<!-- contrail-specs repository contains per-branch directories, use master revision explicitly -->
+<project name="contrail-specs" remote="github" revision="master" path="contrail-specs" />
 <project name="contrail-test" remote="github" revision="R5.0" path="third_party/contrail-test" />
 
 </manifest>