diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-additional.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci-additional.yaml
index f904f259c51..c0f978fb0d8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-additional.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-additional.yaml
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ on:
   pull_request:
     branches:
       - "main"
+    paths:
+      - 'ci/**'
+      - '.github/**'
+      - '/*'  # covers files such as `pyproject.toml`
+      - 'properties/**'
+      - 'xarray/**'
   workflow_dispatch: # allows you to trigger manually
 
 concurrency:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
index 349aa626142..b9b15d867a7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ on:
   pull_request:
     branches:
       - "main"
+    paths:
+      - 'ci/**'
+      - '.github/**'
+      - '/*'  # covers files such as `pyproject.toml`
+      - 'properties/**'
+      - 'xarray/**'
   workflow_dispatch: # allows you to trigger manually
 
 concurrency: