diff --git a/.bazelrc b/.bazelrc
index 28b0301895d..0dd044fe4b5 100644
--- a/.bazelrc
+++ b/.bazelrc
@@ -8,8 +8,10 @@ import %workspace%/envoy.bazelrc
 
 # Istio override: increase JVM heap to 4GB for ARM64 builds (envoy.bazelrc sets 3GB)
 # The 3GB limit causes memory pressure during large downloads which breaks gRPC remote cache connections
+# Also increase direct buffer memory for large file transfers
 # See: https://github.com/istio/proxy/pull/6726
 startup --host_jvm_args=-Xmx4g
+startup --host_jvm_args=-XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=4g
 
 # Overrides workspace_status_command
 build --workspace_status_command=bazel/bazel_get_workspace_status
diff --git a/CODEOWNERS b/CODEOWNERS
index cb66acd443e..97f8d7a9de4 100644
--- a/CODEOWNERS
+++ b/CODEOWNERS
@@ -1 +1 @@
-*                                   @istio/wg-policies-and-telemetry-maintainers
+* @istio/release-managers-1-29
diff --git a/common/Makefile.common.mk b/common/Makefile.common.mk
index 6e9b85bb0f8..ffe73541bd2 100644
--- a/common/Makefile.common.mk
+++ b/common/Makefile.common.mk
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ mirror-licenses: mod-download-go
 	@license-lint --mirror
 
 TMP := $(shell mktemp -d -u)
-UPDATE_BRANCH ?= "master"
+UPDATE_BRANCH ?= "release-1.29"
 
 BUILD_TOOLS_ORG ?= "istio"