diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.elife.k8s.yml b/.gitlab-ci.elife.k8s.yml
index cdd3320b665c96f8c4a33d7f9c948114a28afc82..4aae7cf6e1828e62ad1c3a0bc6ef48225759d4f9 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.elife.k8s.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.elife.k8s.yml
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ deploy:
     AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: $ELIFE_AWS_DEFAULT_REGION
     ELIFE_CLUSTER_NAME: eks-elife-kotahi
   before_script:
+     - mkdir ~/.kube && touch ~/.kube/config
      - echo "${ELIFE_K8S_CLUSTER_CONFIG}" >> ~/.kube/config
   script:
       - |