diff --git a/gitlab/build.sh b/gitlab/build.sh
index f92bc0540473ee7c8ad0b5d3ed979ffac6d23ec5..ef92a4d4a0f525ad9688b9b4e2ef3212df689d99 100755
--- a/gitlab/build.sh
+++ b/gitlab/build.sh
@@ -20,4 +20,7 @@ fi
 BOB_BUILD_NUMBER=`head -n 1 ./_ci/${OS_SLUG}/${PYTHON_VERSION}/build_number.txt | tr -d '\n'`
 export_env BOB_BUILD_NUMBER
 
+# copy the recipe_append.yaml over before build
+run_cmd cp ./ci/recipe_append.yaml conda/recipe_append.yaml
+
 run_cmd ${CONDA_ROOT}/bin/conda build --no-anaconda-upload --variant-config-files _ci/conda_build_config.yaml --python=${PYTHON_VERSION} conda
diff --git a/gitlab/install.sh b/gitlab/install.sh
index d008f785115abdd71dcb8b60e0af50e47ff099a2..78d4808614091c4da649c03c1d84f863980e2577 100755
--- a/gitlab/install.sh
+++ b/gitlab/install.sh
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ run_cmd mkdir -pv ${1}
 get_script ${1} cacert.pem
 get_script ${1} functions.sh
 get_script ${1} conda_build_config.yaml
-get_script ${1}/../conda recipe_append.yaml
+get_script ${1} recipe_append.yaml
 get_exec ${1} before_build.sh
 for stage in "build" "deploy" "pypi"; do
   get_exec ${1} ${stage}.sh