diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 0c889da37c084..15e00c92e9164 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,13 +1,7 @@
 DOCS_OUTPUT_DIR ?= generated/docs
-DOCS_PUBLISH_DIR ?= ../envoy-docs
 
 .PHONY: docs
 docs:
 	rm -fr generated/docs
 	mkdir -p generated/docs
 	docs/build.sh $(DOCS_OUTPUT_DIR)
-
-.PHONY: publish_docs
-publish_docs: docs
-	docs/publish.sh $(DOCS_OUTPUT_DIR) $(DOCS_PUBLISH_DIR)
-  
diff --git a/ci/do_ci.sh b/ci/do_ci.sh
index bdf1493580fbc..1c14ddf38e116 100755
--- a/ci/do_ci.sh
+++ b/ci/do_ci.sh
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ echo "building using $NUM_CPUS CPUs"
 if [[ "$1" == "docs" ]]; then
   echo "docs build..."
   make docs
+  # this target will run a script that will publish docs on a master commit.
+  docs/publish.sh
   exit 0
 fi
 
diff --git a/docs/publish.sh b/docs/publish.sh
index 70f91c839e2f2..c51af270fdbc6 100755
--- a/docs/publish.sh
+++ b/docs/publish.sh
@@ -2,20 +2,20 @@
 
 set -e
 
-DOCS_DIR=$1
-PUBLISH_DIR=$2
+DOCS_DIR=generated/docs
+PUBLISH_DIR=../envoy-docs
 BUILD_SHA=`git rev-parse HEAD`
 
-if [[ ! -d $PUBLISH_DIR ]]; then
-    echo "$PUBLISH_DIR does not exist. Clone a fresh envoy repo."
+if [ "$TRAVIS_PULL_REQUEST" == "false" ] && [ "$TRAVIS_BRANCH" == "master" ]
+then
+  git clone https://GH_TOKEN@github.com/lyft/envoy $PUBLISH_DIR
+  git -C $PUBLISH_DIR config user.name "Publish Docs"
+  git -C $PUBLISH_DIR config user.email GH_EMAIL
+  git -C $PUBLISH_DIR fetch
+  git -C $PUBLISH_DIR checkout -B gh-pages origin/gh-pages
+  rm -fr $PUBLISH_DIR/*
+  cp -r $DOCS_DIR/* $PUBLISH_DIR
+  git -C $PUBLISH_DIR add .
+  git -C $PUBLISH_DIR commit -m "docs @$BUILD_SHA"
+  git -C $PUBLISH_DIR push origin gh-pages
 fi
-
-git -C $PUBLISH_DIR fetch
-git -C $PUBLISH_DIR checkout -B gh-pages origin/gh-pages
-rm -fr $PUBLISH_DIR/*
-cp -r $DOCS_DIR/* $PUBLISH_DIR
-git -C $PUBLISH_DIR add .
-git -C $PUBLISH_DIR commit -m "docs @$BUILD_SHA"
-
-echo
-echo "*** YOU MUST MANUALLY PUSH the gh-pages branch after verifying the commit ***"