diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 5c6d4e8..e5b37b9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -141,7 +141,10 @@ jobs:
 
   version-suggestion:
     name: Version suggestion
-    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
+    # Dependabot cannot carry the prerelease:* label this job needs and its
+    # dependency bumps never drive a plugin version on their own, so the
+    # suggestion is skipped for it instead of failing every Dependabot PR.
+    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.actor != 'dependabot[bot]'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     permissions:
       pull-requests: write
@@ -205,7 +208,9 @@ jobs:
         id: baseline
         run: |
           git fetch origin main --tags --quiet
-          TAG=$(git -C . describe --tags --abbrev=0 origin/main 2>/dev/null || true)
+          # Only plugin release tags (v*) are a baseline; the explain-v* tags
+          # version the npm parser package and share the same commits.
+          TAG=$(git -C . describe --tags --abbrev=0 --match 'v[0-9]*' origin/main 2>/dev/null || true)
           if [ -n "$TAG" ]; then
             BASELINE="${TAG#v}"
           else