diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 24fde2e5a..21ab53e28 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@
 **/.vscode
 install/
 api-docs/
+api-docs-repo/
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index adb206730..6c72a7418 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -303,17 +303,19 @@ dep-graph:
 docs:
 	cargo doc --features=backend-singlepass,backend-cranelift,backend-llvm,docs,wasi,managed
 	cd lib/runtime-c-api/ && doxygen doxyfile && cd ..
-
-docs-publish:
-	git clone -b "gh-pages" --depth=1 https://wasmerbot:${GITHUB_DOCS_TOKEN}@github.com/wasmerio/wasmer.git api-docs
+	mkdir -p api-docs
 	mkdir -p api-docs/c
 	cp -R target/doc api-docs/rust
 	cp -R lib/runtime-c-api/doc/html api-docs/c/runtime-c-api
 	echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=rust/wasmer_runtime/index.html">' > api-docs/index.html
 	echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=wasmer_runtime/index.html">' > api-docs/rust/index.html
-	cd api-docs && git add index.html rust/* c/*
-	cd api-docs && git commit -m "Publishing GitHub Pages ***CI***"
-	cd api-docs && git push origin gh-pages
+
+docs-publish:
+	git clone -b "gh-pages" --depth=1 https://wasmerbot:${GITHUB_DOCS_TOKEN}@github.com/wasmerio/wasmer.git api-docs-repo
+	cp -R api-docs/* api-docs-repo
+	cd api-docs-repo && git add index.html rust/* c/*
+	cd api-docs-repo && git commit -m "Publishing GitHub Pages ***CI***"
+	cd api-docs-repo && git push origin gh-pages
 
 wapm:
 	cargo build --release --manifest-path wapm-cli/Cargo.toml --features "telemetry update-notifications"