diff --git a/.github/workflows/gateway-conformance.yml b/.github/workflows/gateway-conformance.yml
index 0c6a19024998..06e3ce04c0a9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/gateway-conformance.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/gateway-conformance.yml
@@ -129,17 +129,47 @@ jobs:
           ./ipfs config Addresses.API "/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/5002"
         working-directory: kubo-gateway/cmd/ipfs
 
-      # 9. Start the kubo http-p2p-proxy and setup the forwarder
-      - name: Start kubo-gateway
+      # 9. Start the kubo http-p2p-proxy
+      - name: Start kubo http-p2p-proxy
         env:
           IPFS_PATH: "~/.kubo-p2p-proxy"
         run: |
-          gatewayNodeId=$(./ipfs id -f="<id>" --api=/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/5001)
           ./ipfs daemon --offline &
-          ./ipfs p2p forward --allow-custom-protocol /http/1.1 /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/8082 /p2p/$gatewayNodeId
+          
+          endpoint="http://127.0.0.1:5002/api/v0/version"
+          max_retries=5
+          retry_interval=1
+
+          check_endpoint() {
+            curl -X POST --silent --fail "$endpoint" > /dev/null
+            return $?
+          }
+
+          retries=0
+          while ! check_endpoint; do
+            retries=$((retries+1))
+
+            if [ $retries -ge $max_retries ]; then
+              echo "daemon took too long to start"
+              exit 1
+            fi
+
+            sleep $retry_interval
+          done
+          echo "daemon started and ready to receive API calls"
+        working-directory: kubo-gateway/cmd/ipfs
+
+      # 10. Start forwarding data from the http-p2p-proxy to the node serving the Gateway API over libp2p
+      - name: Start http-over-libp2p forwarding proxy
+        run: |
+          gatewayNodeId=$(./ipfs --api=/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/5001 id -f="<id>")
+          echo gatewayNodeId $gatewayNodeId
+          proxyNodeId=$(./ipfs --api=/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/5002 id -f="<id>")
+          echo proxyNodeId $proxyNodeId
+          ./ipfs --api=/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/5002 p2p forward --allow-custom-protocol /http/1.1 /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/8082 /p2p/$gatewayNodeId
         working-directory: kubo-gateway/cmd/ipfs
 
-      # 10. Run the gateway-conformance tests
+      # 11. Run the gateway-conformance tests over libp2p
       - name: Run gateway-conformance tests over libp2p
         uses: ipfs/gateway-conformance/.github/actions/test@v0.3
         with: