diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 507ffa7a3236042ce7534e1df915bea0451c0864..ff974f1c2a705160ab10ac37f160346a97cadda1 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ workflow:
   rules:
     - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
     - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH
-    # - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "schedule" && $PIPELINE == "nightly"
 
 variables:                         &default-vars
   GIT_STRATEGY:                    fetch
@@ -499,13 +498,13 @@ build-rust-doc:
     DOCKERFILE:                    $PRODUCT.Dockerfile
     IMAGE_NAME:                    docker.io/parity/$PRODUCT
   before_script:
-    - test "$Docker_Hub_User_Parity" -a "$Docker_Hub_Pass_Parity" ||
-        ( echo "no docker credentials provided"; exit 1 )
-  script:
     - echo "cd ./artifacts/$PRODUCT/"
     # - VERSION="$(cat ./VERSION)"
     # - echo "${PRODUCT} version = ${VERSION}"
     # - test -z "${VERSION}" && exit 1
+  script:
+    - test "$Docker_Hub_User_Parity" -a "$Docker_Hub_Pass_Parity" ||
+        ( echo "no docker credentials provided"; exit 1 )
     # - buildah bud
     #     --format=docker
     #     --build-arg VCS_REF="${CI_COMMIT_SHA}"
@@ -645,8 +644,14 @@ deploy-prometheus-alerting-rules:
 trigger-simnet:
   stage:                           deploy
   rules:
-    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "schedule" && $PIPELINE == "nightly"
+    # this job runs only on nightly pipeline, that
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME == "master" && $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "schedule" && $PIPELINE == "nightly"
+  # it only makes sense to run it after `publish-docker-substrate` job and it would make sense to add `needs:` here
+  # but `needs:` requires the mentioned job to run (instead of depending from it) and apparently, it will prevent
+  # the whole pipeline from starting in case when this job is conditioned and dependent is not. I.e. any other
+  # scheduled run on not protected branch
   needs:
+    # script will fail if there is no artifacts/substrate/VERSION
     - job:                         publish-docker-substrate
       artifacts:                   false
   trigger: