diff --git a/actions/release/action.yml b/actions/release/action.yml
index 425d30e..2238927 100644
--- a/actions/release/action.yml
+++ b/actions/release/action.yml
@@ -23,11 +23,16 @@ runs:
       shell: bash
       run: bun install --frozen-lockfile
 
-    - name: Configure npm auth
+    - name: Verify NPM_TOKEN
       shell: bash
       env:
         NPM_TOKEN: ${{ inputs.npm-token }}
-      run: npm config set //registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken "${NPM_TOKEN}"
+      run: |
+        if [ -z "$NPM_TOKEN" ]; then
+          echo "::error::NPM_TOKEN is empty or not set"
+          exit 1
+        fi
+        echo "NPM_TOKEN is set (${#NPM_TOKEN} chars)"
 
     - name: Run multi-semantic-release
       shell: bash