diff --git a/.github/workflows/runtime-interface-client_pr.yml b/.github/workflows/runtime-interface-client_pr.yml
index bc9e3f3e..732c1690 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/runtime-interface-client_pr.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/runtime-interface-client_pr.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
-# This workflow will be triggered if there will be changes to
-# aws-lambda-java-runtime-interface-client package or its dependencies (core, serialization),
-# and it builds the package.
+# This workflow builds and tests the aws-lambda-java-runtime-interface-client package.
+# It runs on every pull request (no path filter) so that the smoke-test and
+# integration-test required status checks always report a result and never get
+# stuck "pending" on PRs that don't touch the RIC/core/serialization paths.
 
 name: PR to runtime-interface-client
 
@@ -8,11 +9,6 @@ on:
   workflow_dispatch:
   pull_request:
     branches: [ '*' ]
-    paths:
-      - 'aws-lambda-java-runtime-interface-client/**'
-      - 'aws-lambda-java-core/**'
-      - 'aws-lambda-java-serialization/**'
-      - '.github/workflows/runtime-interface-client_*.yml'
 
 permissions:
   contents: read
diff --git a/aws-lambda-java-log4j2/RELEASE.CHANGELOG.md b/aws-lambda-java-log4j2/RELEASE.CHANGELOG.md
index 37e7a876..a1861e7a 100644
--- a/aws-lambda-java-log4j2/RELEASE.CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/aws-lambda-java-log4j2/RELEASE.CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
-### May 19, 2026
+### August 24, 2026
 `1.6.5`:
 - Updated `log4j-core` and `log4j-api` dependencies to `2.25.5`
 
+### May 19, 2026
 `1.6.4`:
 - Fix regression in `1.6.3`
 
diff --git a/aws-lambda-java-log4j2/pom.xml b/aws-lambda-java-log4j2/pom.xml
index ac1de269..af39b277 100644
--- a/aws-lambda-java-log4j2/pom.xml
+++ b/aws-lambda-java-log4j2/pom.xml
@@ -1,11 +1,9 @@
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
-    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
     <groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
     <artifactId>aws-lambda-java-log4j2</artifactId>
-    <version>1.6.5-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>1.6.6-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <name>AWS Lambda Java Log4j 2.x Libraries</name>