diff --git a/.github/actions/nm-install-test-whl/action.yml b/.github/actions/nm-install-test-whl/action.yml
index 3cf42f72da974..35761be3961e4 100644
--- a/.github/actions/nm-install-test-whl/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/nm-install-test-whl/action.yml
@@ -51,8 +51,9 @@ runs:
         echo "whl=${WHL_BASENAME}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
         pip3 install ${WHL}[sparse]
         # report magic_wand version
-        MAGIC_WAND=$(pip3 show nm-magic-wand-nightly | grep "Version" | cut -d' ' -f2)
+        MAGIC_WAND=$(pip3 show nm-magic-wand-nightly | grep "Version" | cut -d' ' -f2) || echo "nightly not installed"
         if [ -z "${MAGIC_WAND}" ]; then
+          # if neither magic-wand nor magic-wand-nightly is installed stop here with error
           MAGIC_WAND=$(pip3 show nm-magic-wand | grep "Version" | cut -d' ' -f2)
         fi
         echo "magic_wand=${MAGIC_WAND}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"