diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 0e4a12225b2bc71e4d67d0bb1135cf2687a1bb17..9e2b77c94946aa94057f60fe0316074f3614854c 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ pages:
   - pip install sphinx numpydoc sphinx_rtd_theme pandoc recommonmark linuxdoc
   - cp configs/config_default.py ohmpi/config.py  # needed otherwise, module ohmpi cannot be instantiated (no API doc)
   - cd doc
-  - make latexpdf
+  - sphinx-build -M latexpdf source build
   - mv build/latex/ohmpi.pdf source/_static/ohmpi.pdf
-  - make html
+  - sphinx-build -M html source build
   - cd ..
   - mv doc/build/html/ public/
   - ls public/
diff --git a/doc/readme.rst b/doc/readme.rst
index c44bc4371737e3670f8a62a28d15c123df48b62b..aad4e4b8b35f29f8697ac9c961a5fdd89e0a5d80 100644
--- a/doc/readme.rst
+++ b/doc/readme.rst
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 To compile the documentation:
 
+Copy a default config just to be able to instantiate the ohmpi class, then build the doc.
+
+```bash
+cp configs/config_default.py ohmpi/config.py
 cd doc/
 rm -r build
 sphinx-build source build
+```