diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index a5efbc3db566913cd5ac87398ae93e7b11275394..334062392ea3d03e8e5fd306eb2fbaaa6410fc51 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,9 @@ variables:
   GEOSPHERE_TAG_REGEX: "^r[0-9]+_[0-9]+"
   GEOSPHERE_TEST_TAG_REGEX: "^test-r[0-9]+_[0-9]+"
   GCP_TAG_REGEX: "^gcp-r[0-9]+_[0-9]+"
-  TESTS_BRANCH_REGEX: "^master"
+#  TESTS_BRANCH_REGEX: "^master"
+  # only run tests for branches in the main repository
+  TESTS_PROJECT_NAME: "cspp_geo/geosphere/geosphere-deploy"
   GEOSPHERE_NAMESPACE: "geosphere"
   GEOSPHERE_TEST_NAMESPACE: "geosphere-test"
   GCP_NAMESPACE: "default"
diff --git a/helpers/get_namespace.sh b/helpers/get_namespace.sh
index 696d2376b0b64e25128cc546e1c8cb291d0b05c5..8cb587426eef109164178c523729b09b9deb7355 100755
--- a/helpers/get_namespace.sh
+++ b/helpers/get_namespace.sh
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ if [[ -n "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" ]]; then
     elif [[ $CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ $GCP_TAG_REGEX ]]; then
         ns="${GCP_NAMESPACE}";
     fi
-elif [[ $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH =~ $TESTS_BRANCH_REGEX ]]; then
+elif [[ $CI_PROJECT_NAME =~ $TESTS_PROJECT_NAME ]]; then
     ns="${TESTS_NAMESPACE}";
 fi