diff --git a/.github/actions/mkdocs-pages/action.yaml b/.github/actions/mkdocs-pages/action.yaml
index a5a48652..9dd89c35 100644
--- a/.github/actions/mkdocs-pages/action.yaml
+++ b/.github/actions/mkdocs-pages/action.yaml
@@ -18,15 +18,15 @@ inputs:
     description: if to publish docs to gh-pages
     type: string
     default: ''
-  path:
-    description: relative path under $GITHUB_WORKSPACE to checkout root
+  docs_folder:
+    description: docs folder path. If empty, it checkouts all to a fresh 'docs'
     type: string
-    default: ''
+    default: docs
 
 runs:
   using: composite
   steps:
-    - if: ${{ inputs.path }}
+    - if: ${{ !inputs.docs_folder }}
       name: Checkout CI
       uses: actions/checkout@v4
       with:
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ runs:
     - name: Checkout root
       uses: actions/checkout@v4
       with:
-        path: ${{ inputs.path }}
-        sparse-checkout: ${{ inputs.path && '.' || '' }}
+        path: ${{ inputs.docs_folder && '' || 'docs' }}
+        sparse-checkout: ${{ inputs.docs_folder }}
     - name: Set up Python
       uses: actions/setup-python@v5
       with:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/compose_test.yaml b/.github/workflows/compose_test.yaml
index bc6a85b4..5ef6cb5f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/compose_test.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/compose_test.yaml
@@ -92,12 +92,12 @@ jobs:
       && !cancelled()
       && fromJson(needs.changes.outputs.all).docs_all_modified_files
     steps:
-      - uses: SciCatProject/scicatlive/.github/actions/mkdocs-pages@main
+      - uses: SciCatProject/scicatlive/.github/actions/mkdocs-pages@tree_files
         with:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           DOCS_LINK_CHECK: true
           TAG: ${{ github.sha }}
-          path: docs
+          docs_folder: ''
   test:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     needs:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/mkdocs.yaml b/.github/workflows/mkdocs.yaml
index 4e3fce4a..97c74c35 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/mkdocs.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/mkdocs.yaml
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@ jobs:
         with:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           push: true
-          path: docs
+          docs_folder: ''