diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index e2138f9c69b..3cb4446fb73 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -32,6 +32,39 @@ jobs:
       username: ${{ github.event.pull_request.user.login || github.actor }}
       runner_type: builder-x86
     secrets: inherit
+  # job just to alert that you *might* hit missing CI files, but if not you can continue
+
+  ci-consistency:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # Only check PRs for consistency (not master)
+    if: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha != '' }}
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout Repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
+
+      - name: Checkout Merge Pipeline Files
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          path: merge-commit-pipeline-files
+          sparse-checkout: |
+            .github/workflows/ci.yml
+            .github/workflows/setup-runner.yml
+
+      - name: Ensure CI Consistency
+        if: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha != '' }}
+        run: |
+          # Compare the checked-out CI configuration files with the reference files
+          if ! git diff --no-index .github/workflows/ci.yml merge-commit-pipeline-files/.github/workflows/ci.yml; then
+            echo "Error: ci.yml changes in master (or PR base). *Usually* you can continue just fine. If you hit trouble with missing files, please merge these changes. This is to alert about potential surprises from Github Action's merge behavior."
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          if ! git diff --no-index .github/workflows/setup-runner.yml merge-commit-pipeline-files/.github/workflows/setup-runner.yml; then
+            echo "Error: setup-runner.yml changes in master (or PR base). *Usually* you can continue just fine. If you hit trouble with missing files, please merge these changes. This is to alert about potential surprises from Github Action's merge behavior."
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
   build:
     needs: setup
     runs-on: ${{ github.event.pull_request.user.login || github.actor }}-x86
diff --git a/.github/workflows/setup-runner.yml b/.github/workflows/setup-runner.yml
index de6a0d6e893..3434e3432b3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/setup-runner.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/setup-runner.yml
@@ -53,30 +53,6 @@ jobs:
         with:
           ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
 
-      - name: Checkout Merge Pipeline Files
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-        # Only check PRs for consistency (not master)
-        if: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha != '' }}
-        with:
-          path: merge-commit-pipeline-files
-          sparse-checkout: |
-            .github/workflows/ci.yml
-            .github/workflows/setup-runner.yml
-
-      - name: Ensure CI Consistency
-        # Only check PRs for consistency (not master)
-        if: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha != '' }}
-        run: |
-          # Compare the checked-out CI configuration files with the reference files
-          if ! git diff --no-index .github/workflows/ci.yml merge-commit-pipeline-files/.github/workflows/ci.yml; then
-            echo "Error: ci.yml changes in master (or PR base). Please merge these changes. This is to prevent surprises from Github Action's merge behavior."
-            exit 1
-          fi
-          if ! git diff --no-index .github/workflows/setup-runner.yml merge-commit-pipeline-files/.github/workflows/setup-runner.yml; then
-            echo "Error: setup-runner.yml changes in master (or PR base). Please merge these changes. This is to prevent surprises from Github Action's merge behavior."
-            exit 1
-          fi
-
       - name: Start EC2 runner
         uses: ./.github/ensure-builder
         with: