diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 9018fe1a1cd1b1bfdf3aa134b1ad4ee322eb5d05..1602977b91dedf617f521b72fd8239e1dd31e2e3 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -14,8 +14,7 @@ code-quality-master:
   stage: test
   rules:
     - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event" && $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
-    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH'
-      when: manual
+    - if: $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
   script:
     # writes golangci-lint output to gl-code-quality-report.json
     - golangci-lint run --config .ci/.golangci-master.yml --out-format code-climate | tee gl-code-quality-report.json