diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index d61a47c988..a3ee491193 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -8,43 +8,26 @@ jobs:
     name: release
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
-        with:
-          go-version: '1.22'
-          cache: false
-
-      - name: Set env
-        shell: bash
-        run: |
-          echo "GOPATH=${{ github.workspace }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          echo "${{ github.workspace }}/bin" >> $GITHUB_PATH
-      - uses: actions/cache@v4
-        with:
-          path: |
-            ~/go/pkg/mod
-            ~/.cache/go-build
-          key: go-release-${{ hashFiles('**/go.sum') }}
-          restore-keys: go-release-
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           fetch-depth: 0
-          path: src/github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools
-      - run: |
-          make release-notes release
+      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
+        with:
+          go-version: '1.22'
+      - run: make release-notes release
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }}
-        working-directory: src/github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools
       - uses: ncipollo/release-action@v1
         with:
           allowUpdates: true
-          artifacts: src/github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/_output/releases/*
-          bodyFile: src/github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/release-notes.md
+          artifacts: _output/releases/*
+          bodyFile: release-notes.md
           token: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }}
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: release-notes
-          path: src/github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/release-notes.md
+          path: release-notes.md
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: build-artifacts
-          path: src/github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/_output
+          path: _output
diff --git a/hack/release-notes.sh b/hack/release-notes.sh
index 68ecedcf7d..42fad9813a 100755
--- a/hack/release-notes.sh
+++ b/hack/release-notes.sh
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ set -euo pipefail
 
 BUILD_DIR=build
 BINARY=$BUILD_DIR/release-notes
-VERSION=v0.16.8
+VERSION=v0.17.2
 
 mkdir -p $BUILD_DIR
 curl -sSfL --retry 5 --retry-delay 10 -o $BINARY \
diff --git a/hack/release.sh b/hack/release.sh
index e5d00f3e32..ae3cd906b8 100755
--- a/hack/release.sh
+++ b/hack/release.sh
@@ -47,9 +47,9 @@ CRI_TEST_PLATFORMS=(
 
 # Create releases output directory.
 PROJECT="sigs.k8s.io/cri-tools"
-CRI_TOOLS_ROOT="$GOPATH/src/$PROJECT"
-OUTPUTDIR=$CRI_TOOLS_ROOT/_output/releases
-mkdir -p "$OUTPUTDIR"
+OUTPUT_DIR=_output
+RELEASES_DIR=$OUTPUT_DIR/releases
+mkdir -p "$RELEASES_DIR"
 
 GO_LDFLAGS="-X ${PROJECT}/pkg/version.Version=${VERSION}"
 
@@ -63,14 +63,14 @@ for platform in "${CRI_CTL_PLATFORMS[@]}"; do
         CRICTL_BIN="crictl.exe"
     fi
 
-    output_bin=${CRI_TOOLS_ROOT}/_output/bin/$arch-$os/${CRICTL_BIN}
+    output_bin=$OUTPUT_DIR/bin/$arch-$os/${CRICTL_BIN}
     GOARCH="$arch" GOOS="$os" CGO_ENABLED=0 go build \
         -o ${output_bin} \
         -ldflags "${GO_LDFLAGS}" \
         ${PROJECT}/cmd/crictl
     file ${output_bin}
-    tar zcf "$OUTPUTDIR/crictl-$VERSION-$os-$arch.tar.gz" \
-        -C ${CRI_TOOLS_ROOT}/_output/bin/$arch-$os \
+    tar zcf "$RELEASES_DIR/crictl-$VERSION-$os-$arch.tar.gz" \
+        -C $OUTPUT_DIR/bin/$arch-$os \
         ${CRICTL_BIN}
 done
 
@@ -84,14 +84,14 @@ for platform in "${CRI_TEST_PLATFORMS[@]}"; do
         CRITEST_BIN="critest.exe"
     fi
 
-    output_bin=${CRI_TOOLS_ROOT}/_output/bin/$arch-$os/${CRITEST_BIN}
+    output_bin=$OUTPUT_DIR/bin/$arch-$os/${CRITEST_BIN}
     GOARCH="$arch" GOOS="$os" CGO_ENABLED=0 go test -c \
         -o ${output_bin} \
         -ldflags "${GO_LDFLAGS}" \
         ${PROJECT}/cmd/critest
     file ${output_bin}
-    tar zcf "$OUTPUTDIR/critest-$VERSION-$os-$arch.tar.gz" \
-        -C ${CRI_TOOLS_ROOT}/_output/bin/$arch-$os \
+    tar zcf "$RELEASES_DIR/critest-$VERSION-$os-$arch.tar.gz" \
+        -C $OUTPUT_DIR/bin/$arch-$os \
         ${CRITEST_BIN}
 done
 
@@ -101,14 +101,14 @@ echo "| ---- | ------ | ------" | tee -a release-notes.md
 
 # Show sha256/512 for release files
 if [[ "${OSTYPE}" == "darwin"* ]]; then
-    for file in "$OUTPUTDIR"/*.tar.gz; do
+    for file in "$RELEASES_DIR"/*.tar.gz; do
         SHA256=$(shasum -a 256 "$file" | sed -e "s,$file,," | awk '{print $1}' | tee "$file.sha256")
         SHA512=$(shasum -a 512 "$file" | sed -e "s,$file,," | awk '{print $1}' | tee "$file.sha512")
         BASE=$(basename "$file")
         echo "| $BASE | $SHA256 | $SHA512 |" | tee -a release-notes.md
     done
 else
-    for file in "$OUTPUTDIR"/*.tar.gz; do
+    for file in "$RELEASES_DIR"/*.tar.gz; do
         SHA256=$(sha256sum -b "$file" | sed -e "s,$file,," | awk '{print $1}' | tee "$file.sha256")
         SHA512=$(sha512sum -b "$file" | sed -e "s,$file,," | awk '{print $1}' | tee "$file.sha512")
         BASE=$(basename "$file")