diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 082d1eee..0b39a971 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -40,5 +40,5 @@ jobs:
         # SPHINXOPTS='-W --keep-going' make html
         cd docs
         make html >html.log 2>&1
-        # set exit code if found
-        grep -E "ERROR|CRITICAL" html.log && false
+        # succeed if not found, fail if found
+        ! grep -E "ERROR|CRITICAL" html.log