diff --git a/.github/workflows/turborepo-release.yml b/.github/workflows/turborepo-release.yml
index 2b7a2098e868b..654a8f9d2a741 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/turborepo-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/turborepo-release.yml
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ on:
       dry_run:
         description: "Do a dry run, skipping the final publish step."
         type: boolean
+      tag-override:
+        description: "Override default npm dist-tag for the release. Should only be used for backporting"
+        required: false
+        type: string
 
 jobs:
   stage:
@@ -58,7 +62,7 @@ jobs:
           git config --global user.email 'turbobot@vercel.com'
       - name: Version
         run: |
-          ./scripts/version.js ${{ inputs.increment }}
+          ./scripts/version.js ${{ inputs.increment }} ${{ inputs.tag-override }}
           cat version.txt
       - name: Stage Commit
         id: stage
diff --git a/scripts/version.js b/scripts/version.js
index 5a31b89156a9b..0681828ae04e9 100755
--- a/scripts/version.js
+++ b/scripts/version.js
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ const semver = require("semver");
 
 // These values come from the invocation of release.
 const increment = process.argv[2];
+const tagOverride = process.argv[3];
 
 // Now we get the current version of the package.
 const versionFilePath = path.join(__dirname, "..", "version.txt");
@@ -19,6 +20,6 @@ const newVersion = semver.inc(currentVersion, increment, identifier);
 
 // Parse the output semver identifier to identify which npm tag to publish to.
 const parsed = semver.parse(newVersion);
-const tag = parsed?.prerelease[0] || "latest";
+const tag = tagOverride || parsed?.prerelease[0] || "latest";
 
 fs.writeFileSync(versionFilePath, `${newVersion}\n${tag}\n`);