diff --git a/.github/workflows/registry-ci.yml b/.github/workflows/registry-ci.yml
index cf2d1ea23..61985bcf4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/registry-ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/registry-ci.yml
@@ -48,8 +48,9 @@ jobs:
             docker-latest-logrotate \
             docker-logrotate \
             docker-engine || true
-          sudo yum install -y yum-utils
+          # AL2 VERSION_ID=2 confuses the CentOS repo — pin to centos/7 explicitly
           sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
+          sudo sed -i 's|\$releasever|7|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
           sudo yum install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
           sudo systemctl start docker || true
           docker --version