diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index aaa9245f6..173b342ea 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -134,6 +134,10 @@ jobs:
       if: ${{ matrix.python }}
       run: cargo build -p deltachat-rpc-server
 
+    - name: add deltachat-rpc-server to path
+      if: ${{ matrix.python }}
+      run: echo ${{ github.workspace }}/target/debug >> $GITHUB_PATH
+
     - name: run deltachat-rpc-client tests
       if: ${{ matrix.python }}
       env:
diff --git a/deltachat-rpc-client/README.md b/deltachat-rpc-client/README.md
index 0973244f4..4ce7aa7c4 100644
--- a/deltachat-rpc-client/README.md
+++ b/deltachat-rpc-client/README.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Install it anywhere in your `PATH`.
 ## Testing
 
 1. Build `deltachat-rpc-server` with `cargo build -p deltachat-rpc-server`.
-2. Run `tox`.
+2. Run `PATH="../target/debug:$PATH" tox`.
 
 Additional arguments to `tox` are passed to pytest, e.g. `tox -- -s` does not capture test output.
 
diff --git a/deltachat-rpc-client/tox.ini b/deltachat-rpc-client/tox.ini
index 20618227b..4aad8010b 100644
--- a/deltachat-rpc-client/tox.ini
+++ b/deltachat-rpc-client/tox.ini
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ commands =
 setenv =
 # Avoid stack overflow when Rust core is built without optimizations.
     RUST_MIN_STACK=8388608
-    PATH = {env:PATH}{:}{toxinidir}/../target/debug
 passenv =
     DCC_NEW_TMP_EMAIL
 deps =