diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index fc218b2..aa8c169 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ test_custom_grains:
 test_show_highstate_against_upstream_formulas:
   stage: test
   before_script:
-    - bin/prepare_test_show_highstate_env.sh
+    - bin/prepare_test_show_highstate_env.sh -s
     - bin/get_formulas.py -c -d /srv/formula -s
   script: bin/test_show_highstate.sh
   allow_failure: true
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ test_show_highstate_against_forked_formulas:
     # TODO: get rid of GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY as soon as we switch to letsencrypt wildcard certs
     GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY: 'true'
   before_script:
-    - bin/prepare_test_show_highstate_env.sh
+    - bin/prepare_test_show_highstate_env.sh -s
     - bin/get_formulas.py -c -d /srv/formula -s --clone-from 'https://gitlab.infra.opensuse.org/saltstack-formulas' --clone-branch production
   script: bin/test_show_highstate.sh
   tags:
diff --git a/bin/prepare_test_show_highstate_env.sh b/bin/prepare_test_show_highstate_env.sh
index 1f08bd7..b3ba14b 100755
--- a/bin/prepare_test_show_highstate_env.sh
+++ b/bin/prepare_test_show_highstate_env.sh
@@ -13,6 +13,25 @@ if [[ $(whoami) != 'root' ]]; then
     fi
 fi
 
+help() {
+    echo "Prepares the CI runner or workstation environment to run the show_highstate tests"
+    echo
+    echo "Arguments:"
+    echo
+    echo "-s    Strip out secrets files (CI runner can't read them)"
+    echo
+}
+
+[[ $1 == '--help' ]] && help && exit
+
+while getopts sh arg; do
+    case ${arg} in
+        s) STRIP_SECRETS=1 ;;
+        h) help && exit ;;
+        *) help && exit 1 ;;
+    esac
+done
+
 $SUDO zypper -qn in --no-recommends salt git python3 python3-PyYAML
 $SUDO rm -rf /srv/{salt,pillar}
 $SUDO ln -s $PWD/salt /srv/salt
@@ -22,4 +41,4 @@ ROLES=$(bin/get_roles.py --yaml)
 printf "city:\ncountry:\ndomain: infra.opensuse.org\nosfullname:\nosmajorrelease:\nosrelease_info:\n$ROLES\nsalt_cluster: opensuse\nvirt_cluster:" | $SUDO tee /etc/salt/grains > /dev/null
 sed -i -e 's/^production:$/base:/' /srv/{salt,pillar}/top.sls
 touch pillar/id/${ID//./_}.sls
-sed -i -e "s#\- secrets\..*#- id.${ID//./_}#g" $(grep -lr "\- secrets\.")
+[[ -n $STRIP_SECRETS ]] && sed -i -e "s#\- secrets\..*#- id.${ID//./_}#g" $(grep -lr "\- secrets\." pillar)