diff --git a/.buildkite/hooks/post-checkout b/.buildkite/hooks/post-checkout
deleted file mode 100755
index 15126bcfadf..00000000000
--- a/.buildkite/hooks/post-checkout
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,58 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-##
-##  This script prepares the git context so it works with GitHub Pull Requests.
-##
-## Originally implemented in https://github.com/elastic/elastic-agent/blob/main/.buildkite/hooks/post-checkout
-##
-
-set -euo pipefail
-
-checkout_merge() {
-    local target_branch=$1
-    local pr_commit=$2
-    local merge_branch=$3
-
-    if [[ -z "${target_branch}" ]]; then
-        echo "No pull request target branch"
-        exit 1
-    fi
-
-    git fetch -v origin "${target_branch}"
-    git checkout FETCH_HEAD
-    echo "Current branch: $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
-
-    # create temporal branch to merge the PR with the target branch
-    git checkout -b ${merge_branch}
-    echo "New branch created: $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
-
-    # set author identity so it can be run git merge
-    git config user.name "github-merged-pr-post-checkout"
-    git config user.email "auto-merge@buildkite"
-
-    git merge --no-edit "${BUILDKITE_COMMIT}" || {
-        local merge_result=$?
-        echo "Merge failed: ${merge_result}"
-        git merge --abort
-        exit ${merge_result}
-    }
-}
-
-pull_request="${BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST:-false}"
-
-if [[ "${pull_request}" == "false" ]]; then
-    echo "Not a pull request, skipping"
-    exit 0
-fi
-
-TARGET_BRANCH="${BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST_BASE_BRANCH:-main}"
-PR_COMMIT="${BUILDKITE_COMMIT}"
-PR_ID=${BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST}
-MERGE_BRANCH="pr_merge_${PR_ID}"
-
-checkout_merge "${TARGET_BRANCH}" "${PR_COMMIT}" "${MERGE_BRANCH}"
-
-echo "--- Commit information"
-git log --format=%B -n 1
-
-# Ensure buildkite groups are rendered
-echo ""
diff --git a/.buildkite/hooks/pre-command b/.buildkite/hooks/pre-command
index 4a3265a7096..4cea2b24af3 100755
--- a/.buildkite/hooks/pre-command
+++ b/.buildkite/hooks/pre-command
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@
 
 set -eo pipefail
 
+# Upload should not do much with the pre-command.
+if [[ "$BUILDKITE_COMMAND" =~ .*"upload".* ]]; then
+  echo "Skipped pre-command when running the Upload pipeline"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
 # shellcheck disable=SC1091
 source .buildkite/scripts/utils.sh
 
diff --git a/.buildkite/package.yml b/.buildkite/package.yml
index 8acce8119e1..3bb01af1b48 100644
--- a/.buildkite/package.yml
+++ b/.buildkite/package.yml
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 notify:
   - slack: "#apm-server"
-    if: build.state == "failed"
+    if: build.state == "failed" && build.branch =~ /^(main|\d+\.\d+|\d+\.x)$$/
   - slack: "#observablt-bots"
-    if: "build.state != 'passed'"
+    if: build.state == "failed" && build.branch =~ /^(main|\d+\.\d+|\d+\.x)$$/
 
 env:
   IMAGE_UBUNTU_X86_64: "family/core-ubuntu-2404"
diff --git a/.buildkite/scripts/utils.sh b/.buildkite/scripts/utils.sh
index 762495f2ae8..8cb279d26c1 100644
--- a/.buildkite/scripts/utils.sh
+++ b/.buildkite/scripts/utils.sh
@@ -32,7 +32,8 @@ retry() {
 
 #
 # An opinionated approach to detect if unsupported Unified Release branches
-# can be used, this is handy for testing feature branches in dry-run mode
+# can be used, this is handy for testing feature branches in dry-run mode.
+# In addition support for PRs is added by using the base branch of the PR.
 # It produces the below environment variables:
 # - VERSION
 # - DRA_COMMAND
@@ -58,6 +59,9 @@ dra_process_other_branches() {
         buildkite-agent annotate "It was not possible to know the original base branch for ${BUILDKITE_BRANCH}. This won't fail - this is a feature branch." --style 'info' --context 'ctx-info-feature-branch'
       fi
     fi
+  elif [[ -n "$BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST_BASE_BRANCH" ]]; then
+    DRA_BRANCH="$BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST_BASE_BRANCH"
+    DRA_COMMAND=list
   fi
   export DRA_BRANCH DRA_COMMAND VERSION
 }