diff --git a/src/publish.js b/src/publish.js
index bcde667..922e935 100644
--- a/src/publish.js
+++ b/src/publish.js
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ module.exports = async function publish(pluginConfig, {
 
     const settingsPath = pluginConfig.settingsPath || '~/.m2/settings.xml';
     const mavenTarget = pluginConfig.mavenTarget || 'deploy';
-    const clean = pluginConfig.clean || true;
-    const debug = pluginConfig.debug || false;
+    const clean = pluginConfig.clean !== false;
+    const debug = pluginConfig.debug === true;
 
     if (!/^[\w~./-]*$/.test(settingsPath)) {
         throw new Error('config settingsPath contains disallowed characters');