diff --git a/templates/gitlab-ci-semrel.yml b/templates/gitlab-ci-semrel.yml
index 43b4e1ef7d389756888fc3cb9321c8dfcee8db77..310d12556283f3ea86e21d91ca212bff345ed8ae 100644
--- a/templates/gitlab-ci-semrel.yml
+++ b/templates/gitlab-ci-semrel.yml
@@ -576,6 +576,11 @@ stages:
 
     log_info "Setting commit signing up."
 
+    if [[ ! -f "${HOME}/.gnupg" ]]; then
+      log_info "creating GPG base configuration"
+      gpg -k
+    fi
+
     if [[ ! -f "${SEMREL_GPG_SIGNKEY}" ]]; then
       fail "SEMREL_GPG_SIGNKEY is not a file."
     fi