diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 3751a654..c48764bf 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ jobs:
       name: pypi
       url: https://pypi.org/p/gene-normalizer
     permissions:
+      contents: read
       id-token: write # IMPORTANT: mandatory for trusted publishing
     steps:
       - name: Download all the dists