diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/github-actions/index.ts b/lib/modules/manager/github-actions/index.ts
index eee8b346fb1d185c4abeb6342807f07bd099eecb..11ed4bfeeb2e8692a831b8fbf1765a3a72e0016f 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/github-actions/index.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/github-actions/index.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ export { extractPackageFile } from './extract';
 
 export const defaultConfig = {
   fileMatch: [
-    '(^workflow-templates|\\.github\\/workflows)\\/[^/]+\\.ya?ml$',
+    '^(workflow-templates|\\.github\\/workflows)\\/[^/]+\\.ya?ml$',
     '(^|\\/)action\\.ya?ml$',
   ],
 };