diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index d69fb11a789f9e3bfe509cb11168b6ce0273f871..0815af2ecb9e82e91cc7151b31d303a5e58ccc76 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -240,6 +240,7 @@ build-helm:
   stage: build
   only:
     - merge_requests
+    - tags
   before_script:
     - apk add --no-cache helm make
     - echo "$CI_GPG_KEYRING" | base64 -d > ./secring.gpg
@@ -457,9 +458,8 @@ release-images:
     - test-search-service-init
     - test-ui
   only:
-    refs:
-      - dev
-      - /^release-.*/
+    - tags
+    - merge_requests
   before_script:
     - "docker logout ${CI_REGISTRY_URL}"
     - "echo ${CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD} | docker login --username ${CI_REGISTRY_USER} --password-stdin ${CI_REGISTRY_URL}"
@@ -474,8 +474,8 @@ release-helm:
   stage: release
   image: docker:${DOCKER_VERSION}-dind
   only:
-    refs:
-      - /^release-.*/
+    - tags
+    - merge_requests
   when: manual
   needs:
     - build-helm
@@ -503,8 +503,8 @@ release-docs:
   stage: release
   image: docker.io/python:${PYTHON_VERSION}-alpine${ALPINE_VERSION}
   only:
-    refs:
-      - /^release-.*/
+    - tags
+    - merge_requests
   before_script:
     - "apk add --no-cache alpine-sdk bash sed wget openssh jq curl"
     - "pip install pipenv"
@@ -538,8 +538,7 @@ release-libs:
   image: docker.io/python:${PYTHON_VERSION}-alpine${ALPINE_VERSION}
   when: manual
   only:
-    refs:
-      - /^release-.*/
+    - tags
   variables:
     PIPENV_PIPFILE: "./dbrepo-analyse-service/Pipfile"
   before_script:
@@ -567,8 +566,7 @@ verify-dist:
   image: docker.io/alpine:${ALPINE_VERSION}
   stage: verify
   only:
-    refs:
-      - /^release-.*/
+    - tags
   before_script:
     - "apk add curl"
   script: