diff --git a/.github/workflows/integration-vector-io-tests.yml b/.github/workflows/integration-vector-io-tests.yml
index 490fae86f..b5f8ba98d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/integration-vector-io-tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/integration-vector-io-tests.yml
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ jobs:
           ENABLE_WEAVIATE: ${{ matrix.vector-io-provider == 'remote::weaviate' && 'true' || '' }}
           WEAVIATE_CLUSTER_URL: ${{ matrix.vector-io-provider == 'remote::weaviate' && 'localhost:8080' || '' }}
           ELASTICSEARCH_URL: ${{ matrix.vector-io-provider == 'remote::elasticsearch' && 'http://localhost:9200' || '' }}
-          ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY: ${{ matrix.vector-io-provider == 'remote::elasticsearch' && '${{ steps.setup-elasticsearch.outputs.elasticsearch-api-key }}' || '' }}
+          ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY: ${{ matrix.vector-io-provider == 'remote::elasticsearch' && steps.setup-elasticsearch.outputs.elasticsearch-api-key || '' }}
         run: |
           uv run --no-sync \
             pytest -sv --stack-config="files=inline::localfs,inference=inline::sentence-transformers,vector_io=${{ matrix.vector-io-provider }}" \