diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yaml b/.gitlab-ci.yaml
index 63bdd35e35c875295515c9647a10ae69c9550426..b5d921350506e78aab6e75aff984039d76d6743e 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yaml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yaml
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ hivemind_build:
   rules:
     - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
       when: always
+    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH || $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "develop"'
+      when: always
     - when: always
 
   tags:
@@ -81,6 +83,8 @@ hivemind_sync:
   rules:
     - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
       when: always
+    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH || $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "develop"'
+      when: always
     - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "push"'
       when: manual
     - when: on_success
@@ -116,6 +120,8 @@ hivemind_start_server:
   rules:
     - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
       when: always
+    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH || $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "develop"'
+      when: always
     - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "push"'
       when: manual
     - when: on_success
@@ -131,7 +137,10 @@ hivemind_stop_server:
 
   variables:
     GIT_STRATEGY: none
-  when: manual
+  rules:
+    - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
+      when: always
+    - when: manual
   script:
     - scripts/ci_stop_server.sh hive_server.pid
 
diff --git a/scripts/ci_start_api_smoketest.sh b/scripts/ci_start_api_smoketest.sh
index def9b00273ca7f35964c8bd639e158690c86a406..2fc9c9f4c49dfe7dbbf591116a8decbdd3453e49 100755
--- a/scripts/ci_start_api_smoketest.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci_start_api_smoketest.sh
@@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ set -e
 
 cd tests/tests_api/hivemind/tavern
 
-pip3 install --user jsondiff
-pip3 install --user tavern
-pip3 install --user pytest
+pip3 install --user jsondiff==1.2.0
+pip3 install --user tavern==1.2.2
+pip3 install --user pytest==6.0.1
 
 export HIVEMIND_ADDRESS=$1
 export HIVEMIND_PORT=$2
diff --git a/scripts/ci_sync.sh b/scripts/ci_sync.sh
index b6be580d268a3e4db9a84fef6f012fc3144d2310..766c3ab636a8b20a52c73b59efa50b535a2ac208 100755
--- a/scripts/ci_sync.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci_sync.sh
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ kill -SIGINT `pgrep -f "$HIVE_NAME sync"` || true;
 sleep 5
 kill -9 `pgrep -f "$HIVE_NAME sync"` || true;
 
+kill -SIGINT `pgrep -f "$HIVE_NAME server"` || true;
+sleep 5
+kill -9 `pgrep -f "$HIVE_NAME server"` || true;
+
 ls -l dist/*
 rm -rf ./local-site
 mkdir -p `python3 -m site --user-site`