diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 2cde13a..e9034ea 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.0.283
+1.0.284
diff --git a/sky130/magic/sky130.magicrc b/sky130/magic/sky130.magicrc
index 4697756..a500a73 100644
--- a/sky130/magic/sky130.magicrc
+++ b/sky130/magic/sky130.magicrc
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 
 # Allow override of PDK path from environment variable PDK_ROOT
 if {[catch {set PDK_ROOT $env(PDK_ROOT)}]} {
-    set PDK_ROOT "STAGING_PATH"
+    set PDK_ROOT STAGING_PATH
 }
 
 # loading technology
diff --git a/sky130/magic/sky130.tcl b/sky130/magic/sky130.tcl
index 85af9ee..2856e25 100644
--- a/sky130/magic/sky130.tcl
+++ b/sky130/magic/sky130.tcl
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 #-----------------------------------------------------
 
 if {[catch {set TECHPATH $env(PDK_ROOT)}]} {
-    set TECHPATH "STAGING_PATH"
+    set TECHPATH STAGING_PATH
 }
 if [catch {set PDKPATH}] {set PDKPATH ${TECHPATH}/TECHNAME}
 set PDKNAME TECHNAME
diff --git a/sky130/xcircuit/sky130.xcircuitrc b/sky130/xcircuit/sky130.xcircuitrc
index 62d71cc..e5827e9 100644
--- a/sky130/xcircuit/sky130.xcircuitrc
+++ b/sky130/xcircuit/sky130.xcircuitrc
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 set XCOps(liboverride) 1
-set PDK_ROOT STAGING_PATH
 global PDK_ROOT
+if {[catch {set PDK_ROOT $env(PDK_ROOT)}]} {
+    set PDK_ROOT STAGING_PATH
+}
 config search libraries .:$PDK_ROOT/TECHNAME/libs.tech/xcircuit:$XCIRCUIT_LIB_DIR
 library make generic
 library 1 load generic