programmatically constraining releases to the rc branch

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -17,6 +17,15 @@ jobs:
       repo_url: ${{ steps.gen_vars.outputs.repo_url }}
       adj_build_number: ${{ steps.gen_vars.outputs.adj_build_number }}
     steps:
+      - name: Branch check
+        run: |
+          if [[ "$GITHUB_REF" != "refs/heads/rc" ]]; then
+            echo "==================================="
+            echo "[!] Can only release from rc branch"
+            echo "==================================="
+            exit 1
+          fi
+      
       - name: Checkout repo
         uses: actions/checkout@5a4ac9002d0be2fb38bd78e4b4dbde5606d7042f