diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 60b759ca28a211c3464de6b41b1d1c0e28c3c369..ba9ba46424b2215246e1be8a0da77309c4829f1b 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -49,11 +49,12 @@ build:dev:
 
   tags:
     - cloudformation-dev
-    - dev
-  # only:
-  #   changes:
-  #     - Dockerfile
-  when: manual
+    - development
+  only:
+    refs:
+      - merge_requests
+    variables:
+      - $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME == "main"
 
 build:prod:
   extends: .docker-build
@@ -85,10 +86,14 @@ deploy:dev:
     STAGE: "dev"
     CLUSTER: nhgf-fargate-ecs-shared
     SERVICENAME: fargate-pygeoapi-${STAGE}-fargate
-  when: manual
   tags: 
     - cloudformation-dev
-    - dev
+    - development
+  only:
+    refs:
+      - merge_requests
+    variables:
+      - $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME == "main"
 
 build:prod:
   extends: .ecs-deploy