diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish-to-pypi.yml b/.github/workflows/publish-to-pypi.yml
index 8e7a0473..5ed82474 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish-to-pypi.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish-to-pypi.yml
@@ -17,11 +17,9 @@ jobs:
         with:
           python-version: 3.12
       - name: Install dependencies
-        run: |
-          pip install wheel
+        run: pip install wheel setuptools
       - name: Build
-        run: |
-          python setup.py build sdist bdist_wheel
+        run: python setup.py build sdist bdist_wheel
       - name: Publish distribution 📦 to PyPI
         uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@v1.12.2
         with:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index dd4f2aef..79f78e84 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 
     strategy:
-      max-parallel: 5
       matrix:
         python-version: [3.9, '3.10', 3.11, 3.12, 3.13]
 
@@ -38,6 +37,23 @@ jobs:
           token: ${{ secrets.CODECOV_TOKEN }}
           fail_ci_if_error: true
 
+  # this uses the same commands as in our release pipeline and ensures that we can still build puppetboard
+  test-build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        python-version: [3.9, '3.10', 3.11, 3.12, 3.13]
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: pip install wheel setuptools
+      - name: Build
+        run: python setup.py build sdist bdist_wheel
+
   build_docker_image:
     name: 'Test building a container'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@@ -70,6 +86,7 @@ jobs:
   tests:
     needs:
       - test
+      - test-build
       - build_docker_image
       - security-tests
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest