diff --git a/.github/workflows/contracts-test.yaml b/.github/workflows/contracts-test.yaml
index a3f98c5a5..d3b658364 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/contracts-test.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/contracts-test.yaml
@@ -22,10 +22,11 @@ jobs:
           --health-cmd="/oasis-node debug control wait-ready -a unix:/serverdir/node/net-runner/network/client-0/internal.sock"
           --health-start-period=90s
     steps:
-      - name: attempt to connect to sapphire-dev-ci
-        run: curl -kv http://sapphire-dev-ci:8545/ || true
-      - name: attempt to connect to sapphire-dev-ci via localhost
-        run: curl -kv http://127.0.0.1:8545/ || true
+      - name: Install jq
+        run: sudo apt install -y jq
+      - name: Wait until gateway is ready
+        working-directory: .github/workflows
+        run: wait-until-ready.sh || true
       - name: Checkout code
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: Install Node.js
diff --git a/.github/workflows/wait-until-ready.sh b/.github/workflows/wait-until-ready.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d7e921c68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/wait-until-ready.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+set -o pipefail
+SECONDS=0
+
+gatewayisready() {
+  curl -X POST -s \
+      -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+      --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"oasis_callDataPublicKey","params":[],"id":1}' \
+      http://127.0.0.1:8545 2>&1 | jq -e '.result | has("key")'
+}
+
+until gatewayisready
+do
+  if (( SECONDS >= 3 ))
+  then
+    echo "Gateway not ready..."
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  sleep 1
+done