diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 6693efe95eeadeb62e8b7c9f12910cae4ad0da10..6554cef26e8b48254bc53aa5a9e2b86b3a2b4ed4 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ variables:
   # suite) are started
   CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE_BASE: $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/src/caosdb-pyinttest/base:latest
 
-  CPPINTTEST_TESTENV_IMAGE_TAG: $CPPINTTEST_REPO_PATH/testenv:$CPPINTTEST_IMAGE_SUFFIX
   # this is the image where the cpplib is installed and where the testsuite runs
   CPPINTTEST_REGISTRY_IMAGE: $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/src/caosdb-cppinttest/testenv:$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME
   # this is the name of the image in the /image-cache/ directory
@@ -42,7 +41,7 @@ variables:
   # This is the caosdb-deploy branch which build the images for caosdb-server and caosdb-mysql
   # TODO change to dev after merge of f-grpc to dev
   DEPLOY_REF: f-grpc
-  CAOSDB_TAG: f-grpc_F_f-grpc_C_main_IC_main
+  DEFAULT_CAOSDB_TAG: f-grpc_F_f-grpc_C_main_IC_main
 
 stages:
   - info
@@ -75,20 +74,6 @@ build-testenv: &build-testenv
   script:
     - docker login -u gitlab-ci-token -p $CI_JOB_TOKEN $CI_REGISTRY
 
-    ## Determine the cppinttest branch...
-    # ... use an f-branch if posible...
-    - if echo "$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME" | grep -c "^f-" ; then
-        CPPINT_REF=$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME ;
-      fi
-
-    # ... or use main if possible...
-    - if [[ "$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME" == "main" ]] ; then
-        CPPINT_REF=main ;
-      fi
-
-    # ... and fall-back to dev
-    - CPPINT_REF=${CPPINT_REF:-dev}
-
       #build testenv image
     - docker pull $CPPLIB_REGISTRY_IMAGE || true # remove??? docker build --pull???
     - docker build
@@ -144,7 +129,7 @@ test:
           CAOSDB_TAG=${DEPLOY_REF};
         fi;
       fi
-    - docker pull $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/src/caosdb-deploy:$CAOSDB_TAG || CAOSDB_TAG=dev ;
+    - docker pull $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/src/caosdb-deploy:$CAOSDB_TAG || CAOSDB_TAG=${DEFAULT_CAOSDB_TAG} ;
     - echo "$CAOSDB_TAG"
 
     - docker load < /image-cache/${CPPINTTEST_IMAGE_CACHE} || true