diff --git a/.github/workflows/bump-versions.yml b/.github/workflows/bump-versions.yml
index d0a5cdf..cbf3cf1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/bump-versions.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/bump-versions.yml
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ jobs:
           from pathlib import Path
 
           tools = {}
-          skip_actions = []
+          # incompatible with subdirectory actions
+          skip_actions = ["Quantco/ui-actions/version-metadata"]
 
           for file in Path("template/.github/workflows").glob("*"):
               content = file.read_text()
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-copier.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-copier.yml
index 3f122c7..7f557ba 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-copier.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-copier.yml
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0 # copier doesn't like shallow clones
       - name: Set up pixi
         uses: prefix-dev/setup-pixi@ca3b9ac762955fad216e3d8e0bbf22087071c89c
       - name: Run unittests
@@ -22,3 +24,4 @@ jobs:
           report-title: Check project generation
           click-to-expand: false
           custom-pytest: pixi run pytest
+          custom-arguments: --color
diff --git a/copier.yml b/copier.yml
index 56cc7e1..23264cf 100644
--- a/copier.yml
+++ b/copier.yml
@@ -26,5 +26,6 @@ entry:
     {% endif %}
 
 _tasks:
-  - git init
   - gsed -i "s/TOOL_VERSION/$(micromamba search {{ tool }} --json | jq -r '.result.pkgs[0].version')/g" environment.yml
+  - git init
+  - git branch -M main