diff --git a/ci/build_basic_cli.sh b/ci/build_basic_cli.sh
index 9b87011fe8..3174708984 100755
--- a/ci/build_basic_cli.sh
+++ b/ci/build_basic_cli.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ set -euxo pipefail
 
 git clone https://github.com/roc-lang/basic-cli.git
 
+# fetch releases data and save to file
+curl https://api.github.com/repos/roc-lang/roc/releases > roc_releases.json
+
 # Get the url of the latest release. We're not using the latest main source code for easier reproducibility.
 RELEASE_URL=$(./ci/get_latest_release_url.sh $1)