diff --git a/CODEOWNERS b/CODEOWNERS
index 9aae9ebf0e..97f8d7a9de 100644
--- a/CODEOWNERS
+++ b/CODEOWNERS
@@ -1,6 +1 @@
-*                @istio/wg-networking-maintainers-ztunnel
-/Makefile*       @istio/wg-test-and-release-maintainers
-/*.md            @istio/wg-test-and-release-maintainers
-/common/         @istio/wg-test-and-release-maintainers
-/common-protos/  @istio/wg-test-and-release-maintainers
-/scripts/        @istio/wg-test-and-release-maintainers
+* @istio/release-managers-1-29
diff --git a/common/Makefile.common.mk b/common/Makefile.common.mk
index 6e9b85bb0f..ffe73541bd 100644
--- a/common/Makefile.common.mk
+++ b/common/Makefile.common.mk
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ mirror-licenses: mod-download-go
 	@license-lint --mirror
 
 TMP := $(shell mktemp -d -u)
-UPDATE_BRANCH ?= "master"
+UPDATE_BRANCH ?= "release-1.29"
 
 BUILD_TOOLS_ORG ?= "istio"