diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI-runpod_dep.yml b/.github/workflows/CI-runpod_dep.yml
index 5a14972..1f2869d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI-runpod_dep.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI-runpod_dep.yml
@@ -19,32 +19,37 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Check for new package version and update
         run: |
-          # Get current version
-          current_version=$(grep -oP 'runpod==\K[^"]+' ./builder/requirements.txt)
-
-          # Get new version
+          echo "Fetching the current runpod version from requirements.txt..."
+          # Get current version (supports '~=' versioning)
+          current_version=$(grep -oP 'runpod~=\K[^ ]+' ./builder/requirements.txt)
+          echo "Current version: $current_version"
+          # Get new version from PyPI
           new_version=$(curl -s https://pypi.org/pypi/runpod/json | jq -r .info.version)
           echo "NEW_VERSION_ENV=$new_version" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-
+          echo "New version: $new_version"
           if [ -z "$new_version" ]; then
-              echo "Failed to fetch the new version."
+              echo "ERROR: Failed to fetch the new version from PyPI."
               exit 1
           fi
-
-          # Check if the version is already up-to-date
-          if [ "$current_version" = "$new_version" ]; then
-              echo "The package version is already up-to-date."
+          # Extract major and minor from current version (e.g., 1.7)
+          current_major_minor=$(echo $current_version | cut -d. -f1,2)
+          new_major_minor=$(echo $new_version | cut -d. -f1,2)
+          echo "Current major.minor: $current_major_minor"
+          echo "New major.minor: $new_major_minor"
+          # Check if the new version is within the current major.minor range (e.g., 1.7.x)
+          if [ "$new_major_minor" = "$current_major_minor" ]; then
+              echo "No update needed. The new version ($new_version) is within the allowed range (~= $current_major_minor)."
               exit 0
           fi
-
-          # Update requirements.txt
-          sed -i "s/runpod==.*/runpod==$new_version/" ./builder/requirements.txt
-
+          echo "New major/minor detected ($new_major_minor). Updating runpod version..."
+          # Update requirements.txt with the new version while keeping '~='
+          sed -i "s/runpod~=.*/runpod~=$new_version/" ./builder/requirements.txt
+          echo "requirements.txt has been updated."
       - name: Create Pull Request
         uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v3
         with:
           token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-          commit-message: Update package version
+          commit-message: Update runpod package version
           title: Update runpod package version
           body: The package version has been updated to ${{ env.NEW_VERSION_ENV }}
           branch: runpod-package-update