diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 40b87667..148885d2 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 
 variables:
   pip: pip3 --timeout 100 --retries 10
+# speed up git checkout phase
+  GIT_DEPTH: 1
 
 
 test:
@@ -22,6 +24,7 @@ test:
 metadata_v0:
   image: registry.gitlab.com/fdroid/ci-images-server:latest
   variables:
+    GIT_DEPTH: 1000
     RELEASE_COMMIT_ID: 37f37ebd88e79ebe93239b72ed5503d5bde13f4b  # 2.0a~
   script:
     - git fetch https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidserver.git $RELEASE_COMMIT_ID