diff --git a/.changeset/breezy-meals-lie.md b/.changeset/breezy-meals-lie.md
index d9bc3f3d22..cbdd876614 100644
--- a/.changeset/breezy-meals-lie.md
+++ b/.changeset/breezy-meals-lie.md
@@ -3,4 +3,16 @@
 '@backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend': patch
 ---
 
-include ref when cloning from GitLab
+Honor the branch ref in the url when cloning.
+
+This fixes a bug in the scaffolder prepare stage where a non-default branch
+was specified in the scaffolder URL but the default branch was cloned.
+For example, even though the `other` branch is specified in this example, the
+`master` branch was actually cloned:
+
+```yaml
+catalog:
+  locations:
+    - type: url
+      target: https://github.com/backstage/backstage/blob/other/plugins/scaffolder-backend/sample-templates/docs-template/template.yaml
+```