diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 9806c5d..d934ec5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ on:
   push:
     branches: [ "main" ]
   pull_request:
-    branches: [ "main" ]
+    branches: [ "*" ]
 
 permissions:
   contents: read
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 36211d8..97fc267 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -131,4 +131,5 @@ dmypy.json
 # vs code
 .vscode/
 data_private/
-test_output/
\ No newline at end of file
+test_output/
+data/output*
diff --git a/pyranker/cli/run.py b/pyranker/cli/run.py
index bf0fddc..e07e026 100644
--- a/pyranker/cli/run.py
+++ b/pyranker/cli/run.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ def main(
             "--metrics-for-reversal",
             help="The comma-separated metric columns for which the reversal should be calculated; for example, 'hausdorff_tc,hausdorff_et'.",
         ),
-    ] = None,
+    ] = "",
     iterations: Annotated[
         int,
         typer.Option(
diff --git a/pyranker/ranker.py b/pyranker/ranker.py
index 65bde1e..e0c06c3 100644
--- a/pyranker/ranker.py
+++ b/pyranker/ranker.py
@@ -125,7 +125,12 @@ def perform_permutation_test(self) -> None:
         n_methods = len(self.ranks_per_metric)
         self.pvals = np.zeros((n_methods, n_methods))
 
-        ranks_per_metric_sanitized = self.ranks_per_metric.drop(
+        # sort in order of cumulative rank and reset index in one step
+        ranks_per_metric_sorted = self.ranks_per_metric.sort_values(
+            by="cumulative_rank"
+        ).reset_index(drop=True)
+
+        ranks_per_metric_sanitized = ranks_per_metric_sorted.drop(
             columns=["method", "cumulative_rank", "final_rank"]
         )