diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml b/.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml
index 9bb8927..a7a85c9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml
@@ -11,32 +11,32 @@ jobs:
     permissions:
       contents: write
       id-token: write
-      issues: write
-      pull-requests: write
-      actions: read
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8 # v5.0.0 https://github.com/actions/checkout
         with:
           fetch-depth: 0
-      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@c2a5a2bd6a758a0937f1ddb1e8950609867ed15c # v4.3.0 https://github.com/googleapis/release-please-action/commits/main/
-        name: release-please
-        id: release-please
-        with:
-          skip-github-pull-request: true
-          skip-github-release: false
-          config-file: release-please-config-rc.json
-          manifest-file: .release-please-manifest.json
-      - uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8 # v5.0.0 https://github.com/actions/checkout
-        if: steps.release-please.outputs.version
-        with:
-          fetch-depth: 0
-      - uses: actions/setup-go@d35c59abb061a4a6fb18e82ac0862c26744d6ab5 # v5.5.0 https://github.com/actions/setup-go
-        if: steps.release-please.outputs.version
-        with:
-          go-version-file: 'go.mod'
-          cache: true
+      - name: Create and Push RC Tag with Git
+        run: |
+          BASE_VERSION=$(echo "$GITHUB_REF" | sed 's/refs\/heads\/release\///')
+          echo "Base version is: $BASE_VERSION"
+          git fetch --tags
+          LATEST_RC_NUM=$(git tag | grep "^${BASE_VERSION}-rc." | sed 's/.*-rc.//' | sort -n | tail -1)
+          if [ -z "$LATEST_RC_NUM" ]; then
+            NEXT_RC_NUM=0
+          else
+            NEXT_RC_NUM=$((LATEST_RC_NUM + 1))
+          fi
+          NEXT_RC_TAG="${BASE_VERSION}-rc.${NEXT_RC_NUM}"
+          echo "Calculated next RC tag: $NEXT_RC_TAG"
+
+          # Configure git user
+          git config user.name "${{ github.actor }}"
+          git config user.email "${{ github.actor }}@users.noreply.github.com"
+
+          # Create and push the new tag
+          git tag "$NEXT_RC_TAG" -m "Release Candidate $NEXT_RC_TAG"
+          git push origin "$NEXT_RC_TAG"
       - name: retrieve GPG Credentials
-        if: steps.release-please.outputs.version
         uses: rancher-eio/read-vault-secrets@main
         with:
           secrets: |
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ jobs:
             secret/data/github/repo/${{ github.repository }}/signing/gpg privateKeyId | GPG_KEY_ID ;
             secret/data/github/repo/${{ github.repository }}/signing/gpg privateKey | GPG_KEY
       - name: import_gpg_key
-        if: steps.release-please.outputs.version
         env:
           GPG_PASSPHRASE: ${{ env.GPG_PASSPHRASE }}
           GPG_KEY_ID: ${{ env.GPG_KEY_ID }}
@@ -64,8 +63,7 @@ jobs:
           echo "Importing gpg key"
           echo "${GPG_KEY}" | gpg --import --batch > /dev/null || { echo "Failed to import GPG key"; exit 1; }
       - name: Run GoReleaser
-        if: steps.release-please.outputs.version
-        uses: goreleaser/goreleaser-action@e435ccd777264be153ace6237001ef4d979d3a7a # v6.4.0
+        uses: goreleaser/goreleaser-action@e435ccd777264be153ace6237001ef4d979d3a7a # v6.4.0 https://github.com/goreleaser/goreleaser-action
         with:
           args: release --clean
         env:
diff --git a/.goreleaser.yml b/.goreleaser.yml
index 710ce1d..80a3b6f 100644
--- a/.goreleaser.yml
+++ b/.goreleaser.yml
@@ -54,8 +54,6 @@ release:
   extra_files:
     - glob: 'terraform-registry-manifest.json'
       name_template: '{{ .ProjectName }}_{{ .Version }}_manifest.json'
-  # If you want to manually examine the release before its live, uncomment this line:
-  # draft: true
-  prerelease: false
+  prerelease: auto
 changelog:
   disable: true
diff --git a/aspell_custom.txt b/aspell_custom.txt
index 690469b..645ecff 100644
--- a/aspell_custom.txt
+++ b/aspell_custom.txt
@@ -16,3 +16,4 @@ assignees
 backport
 url
 gpg
+rc
diff --git a/release-please-config-rc.json b/release-please-config-rc.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 3305eba..0000000
--- a/release-please-config-rc.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "packages": {
-    ".": {
-      "release-type": "go",
-      "prerelease": true,
-      "include-v-in-tag": true,
-      "include-component-in-tag": false,
-      "always-update": true,
-      "skip-changelog": true,
-      "versioning": "prerelease"
-    }
-  },
-  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json"
-}