diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 6e423b5565f..c10f6f04941 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -24,9 +24,10 @@ on:
         required: true
         type: string
       run-id:
-        description: "The GHA run ID that generated validated artifacts"
-        required: true
+        description: "The GHA run ID that generated validated artifacts (optional - will be auto-detected from git tag if not provided)"
+        required: false
         type: string
+        default: ""
       build-ctk-ver:
         type: string
         required: true
@@ -43,6 +44,32 @@ defaults:
     shell: bash --noprofile --norc -xeuo pipefail {0}
 
 jobs:
+  determine-run-id:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    outputs:
+      run-id: ${{ steps.lookup-run-id.outputs.run-id }}
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout Source
+        uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8  # v5.0.0
+        with:
+          # fetch-depth: 0 is required so the lookup-run-id script can access all git tags
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Determine Run ID
+        id: lookup-run-id
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+        run: |
+          if [[ -n "${{ inputs.run-id }}" ]]; then
+            echo "Using provided run ID: ${{ inputs.run-id }}"
+            echo "run-id=${{ inputs.run-id }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          else
+            echo "Auto-detecting run ID for tag: ${{ inputs.git-tag }}"
+            RUN_ID=$(./ci/tools/lookup-run-id "${{ inputs.git-tag }}" "${{ github.repository }}")
+            echo "Auto-detected run ID: $RUN_ID"
+            echo "run-id=$RUN_ID" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          fi
+
   check-tag:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
@@ -91,13 +118,14 @@ jobs:
       pull-requests: write
     needs:
       - check-tag
+      - determine-run-id
     secrets: inherit
     uses: ./.github/workflows/build-docs.yml
     with:
       build-ctk-ver: ${{ inputs.build-ctk-ver }}
       component: ${{ inputs.component }}
       git-tag: ${{ inputs.git-tag }}
-      run-id: ${{ inputs.run-id }}
+      run-id: ${{ needs.determine-run-id.outputs.run-id }}
       is-release: true
 
   upload-archive:
@@ -106,11 +134,12 @@ jobs:
       contents: write
     needs:
       - check-tag
+      - determine-run-id
     secrets: inherit
     uses: ./.github/workflows/release-upload.yml
     with:
       git-tag: ${{ inputs.git-tag }}
-      run-id: ${{ inputs.run-id }}
+      run-id: ${{ needs.determine-run-id.outputs.run-id }}
       component: ${{ inputs.component }}
 
   publish-wheels:
@@ -118,6 +147,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     needs:
       - check-tag
+      - determine-run-id
     environment:
       name: ${{ inputs.wheel-dst }}
       url: https://${{ (inputs.wheel-dst == 'testpypi' && 'test.') || '' }}pypi.org/p/${{ inputs.component }}/
@@ -131,7 +161,7 @@ jobs:
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
         run: |
-          ./ci/tools/download-wheels "${{ inputs.run-id }}" "${{ inputs.component }}" "${{ github.repository }}" "dist"
+          ./ci/tools/download-wheels "${{ needs.determine-run-id.outputs.run-id }}" "${{ inputs.component }}" "${{ github.repository }}" "dist"
 
       - name: Publish package distributions to PyPI
         if: ${{ inputs.wheel-dst == 'pypi' }}
diff --git a/ci/tools/lookup-run-id b/ci/tools/lookup-run-id
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..db2f84b7922
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/tools/lookup-run-id
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+# A utility script to find the GitHub Actions workflow run ID for a given git tag.
+# This script looks for the CI workflow run that corresponds to the commit of the given tag.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Check required arguments
+if [[ $# -lt 2 ]]; then
+    echo "Usage: $0 <git-tag> <repository> [workflow-name]" >&2
+    echo "  git-tag: The git tag to find the corresponding workflow run for" >&2
+    echo "  repository: The GitHub repository (e.g., NVIDIA/cuda-python)" >&2
+    echo "  workflow-name: Optional workflow name to filter by (default: CI)" >&2
+    echo "" >&2
+    echo "Examples:" >&2
+    echo "  $0 v13.0.1 NVIDIA/cuda-python" >&2
+    echo "  $0 v13.0.1 NVIDIA/cuda-python \"CI\"" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+GIT_TAG="${1}"
+REPOSITORY="${2}"
+WORKFLOW_NAME="${3:-CI}"
+
+# Ensure we have required tools
+if [[ -z "${GH_TOKEN:-}" ]]; then
+    echo "Error: GH_TOKEN environment variable is required" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+if ! command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "Error: jq is required but not installed" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+if ! command -v gh >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "Error: GitHub CLI (gh) is required but not installed" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Looking up run ID for tag: ${GIT_TAG} in repository: ${REPOSITORY}" >&2
+
+# Resolve git tag to commit SHA
+if ! COMMIT_SHA=$(git rev-parse "${GIT_TAG}"); then
+    echo "Error: Could not resolve git tag '${GIT_TAG}' to a commit SHA" >&2
+    echo "Make sure the tag exists and you have fetched it" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Resolved tag '${GIT_TAG}' to commit: ${COMMIT_SHA}" >&2
+
+# Find workflow runs for this commit
+echo "Searching for '${WORKFLOW_NAME}' workflow runs for commit: ${COMMIT_SHA}" >&2
+
+# Get workflow runs for the commit, filter by workflow name and successful status
+RUN_DATA=$(gh run list \
+    --repo "${REPOSITORY}" \
+    --commit "${COMMIT_SHA}" \
+    --workflow "${WORKFLOW_NAME}" \
+    --status completed \
+    --json databaseId,workflowName,status,conclusion,headSha \
+    --limit 10)
+
+if [[ -z "${RUN_DATA}" || "${RUN_DATA}" == "[]" ]]; then
+    echo "Error: No completed '${WORKFLOW_NAME}' workflow runs found for commit ${COMMIT_SHA}" >&2
+    echo "Available workflow runs for this commit:" >&2
+    gh run list --repo "${REPOSITORY}" --commit "${COMMIT_SHA}" --limit 10 || true
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Filter for successful runs (conclusion = success) and extract the run ID from the first one
+RUN_ID=$(echo "${RUN_DATA}" | jq -r '.[] | select(.conclusion == "success") | .databaseId' | head -1)
+
+if [[ -z "${RUN_ID}" || "${RUN_ID}" == "null" ]]; then
+    echo "Error: No successful '${WORKFLOW_NAME}' workflow runs found for commit ${COMMIT_SHA}" >&2
+    echo "Available workflow runs for this commit:" >&2
+    gh run list --repo "$REPOSITORY" --commit "${COMMIT_SHA}" --limit 10 || true
+    echo "" >&2
+    echo "Completed runs with their conclusions:" >&2
+    echo "${RUN_DATA}" | jq -r '.[] | "\(.databaseId): \(.conclusion)"' >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Found workflow run ID: ${RUN_ID} for tag '${GIT_TAG}'" >&2
+
+# Verify the run has the expected artifacts by checking if there are any artifacts
+echo "Verifying artifacts exist for run ${RUN_ID}..." >&2
+ARTIFACT_LIST=$(gh run view "${RUN_ID}" --repo "${REPOSITORY}" --json url || echo "")
+
+if [[ -z "${ARTIFACT_LIST}" ]]; then
+    echo "Warning: Could not verify artifacts for workflow run ${RUN_ID}" >&2
+fi
+
+# Output the run ID (this is what gets used by calling scripts)
+echo "${RUN_ID}"