diff --git a/tools/git-checkout-latest-tag.sh b/tools/git-checkout-latest-tag.sh
index 69fa2ced4f..243e52efda 100755
--- a/tools/git-checkout-latest-tag.sh
+++ b/tools/git-checkout-latest-tag.sh
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+set -eo pipefail
+
 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2014 MicroPython & CircuitPython contributors (https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/graphs/contributors)
 #
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
 
 git fetch --tags
-git checkout $(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)
+latest_tag="$(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)"
+git checkout $latest_tag