diff --git a/tools/check_stamped.py b/tools/check_stamped.py
index 793f60d1ac1..1edd4c07ff6 100644
--- a/tools/check_stamped.py
+++ b/tools/check_stamped.py
@@ -30,9 +30,9 @@
 # in the license stamp, with the assumption being that any modifications/creations will need to be stamped to the year that the
 # modification/creation was made.
 #####################################################################################
-import subprocess, sys, datetime, argparse
+import subprocess, sys, datetime, argparse, os
 
-debug = False
+debug = True
 
 current_year = datetime.date.today().year
 
@@ -110,26 +110,47 @@ def check_filename(filename: str, fileTuple: tuple or list) -> bool:
         return True
     return False
 
+def eval(cmd, **kwargs):
+    return subprocess.run(cmd,
+                          capture_output=True,
+                          shell=isinstance(cmd, str),
+                          check=True,
+                          **kwargs).stdout.decode('utf-8').strip()
 
-def main(branch) -> None:
-    unsupported_file_types.extend(specificIgnores)
 
-    ## Get a list of all files (not including deleted) that have changed/added in comparison to the latest Dev branch from MI Graphx
+def is_excluded(f):
+    base = os.path.basename(f)
+    return base in unsupported_file_types
+
+
+def get_top():
+    return eval("git rev-parse --show-toplevel")
+
+
+def get_head():
+    return eval("git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD")
+
 
-    # Subprocess 1 is fetching the latest dev branch from the MIgraphX Url and naming it as 'FETCH_HEAD'
-    subprocess.run(
-        "git fetch https://github.com/ROCmSoftwarePlatform/AMDMIGraphX {0} --quiet"
-        .format(branch),
-        shell=True,
-        stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+def get_merge_base(branch):
+    head = get_head()
+    return eval(f"git merge-base {branch} {head}")
 
-    # proc 2 is getting the list of file differences between FETCH_HEAD and the branch to be merged. (filters out deleted files from FETCH_HEAD)
-    proc = subprocess.run("git diff --name-only --diff-filter=d FETCH_HEAD",
-                          shell=True,
-                          stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-    fileList = proc.stdout.decode().split('\n')
 
-    if debug: print(f"Target file list {len(fileList)}:\n" + str(fileList))
+def get_files_changed(against, ext=('.py')):
+    files = eval(
+        f"git diff-index --cached --name-only --diff-filter=d {against}",
+        cwd=get_top()).splitlines()
+    return (f for f in files if f.endswith(ext) and not is_excluded(f))
+
+def main(against) -> None:
+    unsupported_file_types.extend(specificIgnores)
+
+    base = get_merge_base(against)
+    fileList = list(
+        get_files_changed(base,
+                          ext=supported_file_types))
+
+    if debug: print(fileList)
 
     for file in fileList:
         if check_filename(file, supported_file_types):
@@ -169,9 +190,8 @@ def main(branch) -> None:
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
-    parser.add_argument("branch")
+    parser.add_argument('against', default='develop', nargs='?')
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
-    main(args.branch)
+    main(args.against)
\ No newline at end of file