diff --git a/files/ansible-playbooks/sot-updater-upgradecmd.yml b/files/ansible-playbooks/sot-updater-upgradecmd.yml
index d6c8774..d59a8ec 100644
--- a/files/ansible-playbooks/sot-updater-upgradecmd.yml
+++ b/files/ansible-playbooks/sot-updater-upgradecmd.yml
@@ -117,10 +117,14 @@
         up_line: >-
           {{
             (
-              (nb_preflight.stdout | default('') | regex_replace('\r','')) | split('\n') | map('trim')
-            ) | select('match', '^NB:\\s+upgrade_cmd=') | list | last | default('')
+              (nb_preflight.stdout | default('') | regex_replace('\r',''))
+              | split('\n') | map('trim')
+            )
+            | select('search', '^NB:\\s+upgrade_cmd=')
+            | list | last | default('')
           }}
         up_val_raw: "{{ up_line | regex_replace('^NB:\\s+upgrade_cmd=', '') | trim }}"
+        # Normalize None/null/empty to '' ; otherwise keep verbatim
         up_val_clean: >-
           {{
             '' if (up_val_raw | lower) in ['none', 'null', ''] else up_val_raw
@@ -128,6 +132,15 @@
       set_fact:
         nb_upgrade_cmd: "{{ up_val_clean }}"
 
+    - name: "NB preflight | Debug upgrade_cmd"
+      when: nb_script.stat.exists
+      delegate_to: localhost
+      ansible.builtin.debug:
+        msg:
+          - "upgrade_cmd line: {{ up_line | default('<none>') }}"
+          - "upgrade_cmd parsed: '{{ nb_upgrade_cmd | default('') }}' (len={{ (nb_upgrade_cmd | default('')) | length }})"
+
+
     # --- Detect "cloud vs NetBox (before update) was different" (regex-free, robust)
     - name: "NB preflight | Detect whether IP changed (pre-update)"
       when: nb_script.stat.exists