diff --git a/.gitlab/ci/host-test.yml b/.gitlab/ci/host-test.yml
index fd159261f9..5ba295e389 100644
--- a/.gitlab/ci/host-test.yml
+++ b/.gitlab/ci/host-test.yml
@@ -220,6 +220,8 @@ test_idf_tools:
     name: $ESP_ENV_IMAGE
     entrypoint: [""]  # use system python3. no extra pip package installed
   script:
+    # Tools must be downloaded for testing
+    - python3 ${IDF_PATH}/tools/idf_tools.py download
     - cd ${IDF_PATH}/tools/test_idf_tools
     - python3 -m pip install jsonschema
     - python3 ./test_idf_tools.py