diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 2a957d10c070865148a960f8cffd65e61ee7fbc7..33edc5fd7700770f7c4fb14f4b8735cd0b40e33b 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -12,13 +12,15 @@ stages:
 
 variables:
   GIT_STRATEGY:                    fetch
-  GIT_DEPTH:                       3
-  CARGO_HOME:                      "/ci-cache/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}/cargo/${CI_JOB_NAME}"
+  GIT_DEPTH:                       "100"
+  CARGO_HOME:                      "/ci-cache/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}/cargo/${CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME}/${CI_JOB_NAME}"
   CARGO_TARGET_DIR:                "/ci-cache/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}/targets/${CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME}/${CI_JOB_NAME}"
-  CI_SERVER_NAME:                  "GitLab CI"
-  REGISTRY:                        "paritytech"
-  RUSTUP_TOOLCHAIN:                nightly
-  RUST_LIB_BACKTRACE:              0
+  RUST_LIB_BACKTRACE:              "0"
+
+workflow:
+  rules:
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH
 
 .collect-artifacts:                &collect-artifacts
   artifacts:
@@ -29,28 +31,29 @@ variables:
       - artifacts/
 
 .docker-env:                       &docker-env
-  image:                          ${REGISTRY}/contracts-ci-linux:latest
+  image:                           paritytech/contracts-ci-linux:latest
   before_script:
     - cargo -vV
     - rustc -vV
     - rustup show
     - bash --version
-    - mkdir -p ${CARGO_HOME}; touch ${CARGO_HOME}/config
-    - mkdir -p ${CARGO_TARGET_DIR}
+    - ./scripts/pre_cache.sh
     # global RUSTFLAGS overrides the linker args so this way is better to pass the flags
-    - printf '[build]\nrustflags = ["-C", "link-dead-code"]\n' | tee ${CARGO_HOME}/config
+    - printf '[build]\nrustflags = ["-C", "link-dead-code"]\n' > ${CARGO_HOME}/config
     - sccache -s
     - git show
-  only:
-    - master
-    - /^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+.*$/        # i.e. v1.0, v2.1rc1
-    - schedules
-    - web
-    - /^[0-9]+$/                   # PRs
+  rules:
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "web"
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "schedule"
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME == "master"
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME == "tags"
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /^[0-9]+$/                   # PRs
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+.*$/        # i.e. v1.0, v2.1rc1
   dependencies:                    []
   interruptible:                   true
   retry:
-    max: 2
+    max:                           2
     when:
       - runner_system_failure
       - unknown_failure
@@ -74,7 +77,7 @@ test:
   stage:                           test
   <<:                              *docker-env
   script:
-    - cargo test --verbose --all --all-features
+    - cargo test --verbose --workspace --all-features
 
 #### stage:                        build (default features)
 
@@ -82,9 +85,11 @@ build:
   stage:                           build
   <<:                              *docker-env
   <<:                              *collect-artifacts
-  only:
-    - schedules
-    - master
+  rules:
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "web"
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "schedule"
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME == "master"
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+.*$/        # i.e. v1.0, v2.1rc1
   script:
     - cargo build --verbose --release
   after_script:
diff --git a/scripts/pre_cache.sh b/scripts/pre_cache.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..76723c2fb2f40473433ac99c9513e06e8544d78a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/pre_cache.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -u
+
+# if there is no directory for this $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME/$CI_JOB_NAME
+# create such directory and
+# copy recursively all the files from the newest dir which has $CI_JOB_NAME, if it exists
+
+# caches are in /ci-cache/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}/${2}/${CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME}/${CI_JOB_NAME}
+
+function prepopulate {
+  if [[ ! -d $1 ]]; then
+    mkdir -p "$1";
+    FRESH_CACHE=$(find "/ci-cache/$CI_PROJECT_NAME/$2" -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 \
+      -type d -name "$CI_JOB_NAME" -not -path "$1" -exec stat --printf="%Y\t%n\n" {} \; |sort -n -r |head -1 |cut -f2);
+    if [[ -d "$FRESH_CACHE" ]]; then
+      echo "____Using" "$FRESH_CACHE" "to prepopulate the cache____";
+      time cp -r "$FRESH_CACHE" "$1";
+    else
+      echo "_____No such $2 dir, proceeding from scratch_____";
+    fi
+  else
+    echo "____No need to prepopulate $2 cache____";
+  fi
+}
+
+# CARGO_HOME cache was moved to the same "project/cache_type/branch_name/job_name" level as
+# CARGO_TARGET_DIR because of frequent weird data-race issues. This just means that the same cache that 
+# would have been used for the entire pipeline will be duplicated for the each job.
+prepopulate "$CARGO_HOME" cargo
+prepopulate "$CARGO_TARGET_DIR" targets