diff --git a/prow/cluster/jobs/istio/envoy/istio.envoy.release-1.9.gen.yaml b/prow/cluster/jobs/istio/envoy/istio.envoy.release-1.9.gen.yaml
index 2bd4f29c4c6..a81afe25184 100644
--- a/prow/cluster/jobs/istio/envoy/istio.envoy.release-1.9.gen.yaml
+++ b/prow/cluster/jobs/istio/envoy/istio.envoy.release-1.9.gen.yaml
@@ -28,9 +28,8 @@ periodics:
       - --labels=tide/merge-method-merge
       - --modifier=merge_upstream_changes
       - --token-path=/etc/github-token/oauth
-      - --cmd=VERSION="v$(cut --fields=1,2 -d. VERSION)"; git remote add upstream
-        https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy.git && git fetch upstream release/"${VERSION}"
-        && git merge upstream/release/"${VERSION}"
+      - --merge-repository=https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy.git
+      - --merge-branch="release/$(cut --fields=1,2 -d. VERSION)"
       image: gcr.io/istio-testing/build-tools:master-2021-03-01T22-30-49
       name: ""
       resources:
diff --git a/prow/config/jobs/envoy-1.9.yaml b/prow/config/jobs/envoy-1.9.yaml
index b530fdcba8f..15ac12c3eed 100644
--- a/prow/config/jobs/envoy-1.9.yaml
+++ b/prow/config/jobs/envoy-1.9.yaml
@@ -65,7 +65,8 @@ jobs:
   - --labels=tide/merge-method-merge
   - --modifier=merge_upstream_changes
   - --token-path=/etc/github-token/oauth
-  - --cmd=VERSION="v$(cut --fields=1,2 -d. VERSION)"; git remote add upstream https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy.git && git fetch upstream release/"${VERSION}" && git merge upstream/release/"${VERSION}"
+  - --merge-repository=https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy.git
+  - --merge-branch="release/$(cut --fields=1,2 -d. VERSION)"
   requirements: [github]
   repos: [istio/test-infra@master]
   image: gcr.io/istio-testing/build-tools:master-2021-03-01T22-30-49