diff --git a/.cirrus.yml b/.cirrus.yml
index d283898483..66228b6fe6 100644
--- a/.cirrus.yml
+++ b/.cirrus.yml
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ frontend_tests_task:
     - npm run build
     - npm test
 
-validate_asciidoc_task:
+validate_metadata_task:
   gke_container:
     <<: *CONTAINER_DEFINITION
     dockerfile: ci/Dockerfile
@@ -56,6 +56,15 @@ validate_asciidoc_task:
     memory: 1G
   metadata_tests_script:
     - ./ci/validate_metadata.sh
+
+validate_asciidoc_task:
+  gke_container:
+    <<: *CONTAINER_DEFINITION
+    dockerfile: ci/Dockerfile
+    cpu: 1
+    memory: 1G
+  env:
+    CIRRUS_CLONE_DEPTH: 0
   asciidoc_tests_script:
     - ./ci/validate_asciidoc.sh
 
diff --git a/ci/validate_asciidoc.sh b/ci/validate_asciidoc.sh
index c7b2b376d4..5e06b1ff89 100755
--- a/ci/validate_asciidoc.sh
+++ b/ci/validate_asciidoc.sh
@@ -1,13 +1,27 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 set -uo pipefail
 
+# Install script dependencies
+cd rspec-tools
+pipenv install
+cd ..
+
+# Compute the set of affected rules
+git fetch origin $CIRRUS_DEFAULT_BRANCH
+branch_base_sha=$(git merge-base FETCH_HEAD HEAD)
+echo "Comparing against the merge-base: $branch_base_sha"
+changeset=$(git diff --name-only $branch_base_sha..HEAD)
+affected_rules=$(printf '%s\n' "$changeset" | grep '/S[0-9]\+/' | sed 's:\(.*/S[0-9]\+\)/.*:\1:' | sort | uniq)
+affected_tooling=$(printf '%s\n' "$changeset" | grep -v '/S[0-9]\+/')
+if [ ! -z "$affected_tooling" ]; then
+    echo "Some rpec tools are changed, validating all rules"
+    affected_rules=rules/*
+fi
+
 ./ci/generate_html.sh
 
-exit_code=0
-
-#validate sections in asciidoc
 cd rspec-tools
-pipenv install -e .
+# validate sections in asciidoc
 if pipenv run rspec-tools check-sections --d ../out; then
     echo "Sections are fine"
 else
@@ -16,8 +30,15 @@ else
 fi
 cd ..
 
-for dir in rules/*
+
+exit_code=0
+
+for dir in $affected_rules
 do
+  if [ ! -d "$dir" ]; then
+    echo "Apparently $dir is deleted, skipping"
+    continue
+  fi
   dir=${dir%*/}
   echo ${dir##*/}
 
@@ -65,4 +86,10 @@ do
   fi
 done
 
+echo "Finished."
+if (( $exit_code == 0 )); then
+    echo "Success"
+else
+    echo "There were errors"
+fi
 exit $exit_code
diff --git a/ci/validate_metadata.sh b/ci/validate_metadata.sh
index c3daab0062..27391938cb 100755
--- a/ci/validate_metadata.sh
+++ b/ci/validate_metadata.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Validate metadata
 cd rspec-tools
-pipenv install -e .
+pipenv install
 pipenv run rspec-tools validate-rules-metadata
 if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
   exit 1