diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
index a0ec218..24b6ef4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
@@ -6,23 +6,25 @@ jobs:
   deploy:
     name: Deploy
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    env:
-      RUN_TESTS: 'false'  # Set this to 'true' to run the tests, or 'false' to skip them
-
-    if: ${{ env.RUN_TESTS != 'false' }}  # This condition will skip the job if RUN_TESTS is set to 'false'
 
     steps:
+    - name: Set environment variable
+      run: echo "RUN_TESTS=false" >> $GITHUB_ENV  # Adjust this to 'true' or 'false'
+
     - name: Checkout
+      if: env.RUN_TESTS != 'false'
       uses: actions/checkout@v3
       with:
         submodules: recursive
 
     - name: setup python
+      if: env.RUN_TESTS != 'false'
       uses: actions/setup-python@v4
       with:
         python-version: '3.9'
 
     - name: install packages
+      if: env.RUN_TESTS != 'false'
       run: |
         sudo apt-get update
         sudo apt-get -y install python3-pip jshon jq virtualenv pkg-config openssl libssl-dev autoconf libtool libsecp256k1-dev
@@ -30,4 +32,5 @@ jobs:
         pip3 install -r requirements-dev.txt
 
     - name: Run tests
+      if: env.RUN_TESTS != 'false'
       run: ./test.sh