diff --git a/.github/workflows/extract-image-names.sh b/.github/workflows/extract-image-names.sh
index 9aca2de8..25fa3753 100755
--- a/.github/workflows/extract-image-names.sh
+++ b/.github/workflows/extract-image-names.sh
@@ -48,10 +48,5 @@ set -euo pipefail
 # (e.g. BASE_IMAGE=ghcr.io/aiidalab/base@sha256:8e57a52b...)
 # and these are in turn read in the docker-compose.<target>.yml files for tests.
 
-if [[ -z ${BAKE_METADATA-} ]];then
-    echo "ERROR: Environment variable BAKE_METADATA is not set!"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
 images=$(echo "${BAKE_METADATA}" | jq -c '. as $base |[to_entries[] |{"key": (.key|ascii_upcase|sub("-"; "_"; "g") + "_IMAGE"), "value": [(.value."image.name"|split(",")[0]),.value."containerimage.digest"]|join("@")}] |from_entries')
 echo "images=$images"