diff --git a/deploy/chores/check_version b/deploy/chores/check_version
index 19417c9..e0f60d1 100755
--- a/deploy/chores/check_version
+++ b/deploy/chores/check_version
@@ -3,10 +3,25 @@
 script="$( readlink -f "${0}" )"
 script_dir="$( dirname "${script}" )"
 
-git_version="$( \
-    git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD \
-    | cut -d '/' -f 2
-)"
+if [ "$( git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD )" = "develop" ]; then
+    echo "Status: Developing"
+    # => version from most recent tag
+    git_version="$( \
+        git describe --tags --abbrev=0 \
+        | sed -E 's/^v[^0-9]*((0|[1-9][0-9]*)[0-9\.]*[0-9]).*$/\1/'
+    )"
+elif git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD | grep -E 'release|hotfix/' >/dev/null; then
+    echo "Status: Releasing"
+    # => version from releasing branch
+    git_version="$( \
+        git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD \
+        | cut -d '/' -f 2
+    )"
+else
+    echo "ERROR: Invalid git branch"
+    echo "ERROR: Chores cannot be run on '$( git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD )'!"
+    exit 2
+fi
 
 api_version="$( \
     grep '^version' "${script_dir}/../../api/pyproject.toml" \
@@ -14,8 +29,8 @@ api_version="$( \
 )"
 
 ui_version="$( \
-    python3 -c 'import sys, json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["version"])' \
-    < "${script_dir}/../../ui/package.json" \
+    grep '"version":' "${script_dir}/../../ui/package.json" \
+    | sed -E 's/.*"version":[^0-9]*((0|[1-9][0-9]*)[0-9\.]*[0-9]).*$/\1/'
 )"
 
 install_version="$( \