diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/1852-deploy-helper-fix-state-is-clean-without-release.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/1852-deploy-helper-fix-state-is-clean-without-release.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0946a4f38f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/1852-deploy-helper-fix-state-is-clean-without-release.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - deploy_helper - allow ``state=clean`` to be used without defining a ``release`` (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/1852).
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/plugins/modules/web_infrastructure/deploy_helper.py b/plugins/modules/web_infrastructure/deploy_helper.py
index 641cc1d4ec..a07281819b 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/web_infrastructure/deploy_helper.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/web_infrastructure/deploy_helper.py
@@ -408,6 +408,9 @@ class DeployHelper(object):
     def remove_unfinished_link(self, path):
         changed = False
 
+        if not self.release:
+            return changed
+
         tmp_link_name = os.path.join(path, self.release + '.' + self.unfinished_filename)
         if not self.module.check_mode and os.path.exists(tmp_link_name):
             changed = True