diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index f884330e..9c007547 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ variables:
   # Versioned esp-idf-doc env image to use for all document building jobs
   ESP_IDF_DOC_ENV_IMAGE: "$CI_DOCKER_REGISTRY/esp-idf-doc-env:v8"
 
+  GIT_SUBMODULE_STRATEGY: recursive
+  ESPCI_TOKEN: $GITLAB_KEY
+
 # before each job, we need to check if this job is filtered by bot stage/job filter
 .apply_bot_filter: &apply_bot_filter
   python $APPLY_BOT_FILTER_SCRIPT || exit 0