diff --git a/utils/tests/gitlab-ci-code-linting.yml b/utils/tests/gitlab-ci-code-linting.yml
index 537ebd784..5b94eb289 100644
--- a/utils/tests/gitlab-ci-code-linting.yml
+++ b/utils/tests/gitlab-ci-code-linting.yml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ check-style-clang-format:
   timeout: 1h
 
 # Clang-tidy
-.base-clang-tidy:
+clang-tidy:
   stage: code-linting
   image: ubuntu:latest
   variables:
@@ -36,62 +36,39 @@ check-style-clang-format:
       --enable-clang-tidy
       --enable-examples --enable-tests --enable-asserts
       --enable-mpi --enable-python-bindings
+  script:
+    - if (git remote | grep -qw upstream) ; then
+      git remote set-url upstream https://gitlab.com/nsnam/ns-3-dev.git ;
+      else
+      git remote add upstream https://gitlab.com/nsnam/ns-3-dev.git ;
+      fi
+    - git fetch upstream $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
+
+    # Run clang-tidy-diff. If running on default branch, Git diff is empty and this is ignored.
+    # File paths generated by git diff are relative to the working tree. Therefore, iregex should only contain paths relative to the working tree.
+    - git diff -U0 upstream/$CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH |
+      clang-tidy-diff-14.py -path cmake-cache/ -p1 -quiet -use-color
+      -iregex "(contrib|examples|src|scratch|utils)\/.+\.(cpp|cc|cxx|c|h|hpp)"
+      1> $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT
+      2> /dev/null
+
+    # Run full clang-tidy in the following cases: 1) default branch, 2) ".clang-tidy" file changed, 3) clang-tidy-diff had an error
+    - if [ $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH ] || (git diff -U0 --name-only upstream/$CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH | grep -q ".clang-tidy") || (egrep -q -A 3 "file not found \[clang-diagnostic-error\]" $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT) ; then
+      echo "Running full clang-tidy" ;
+      run-clang-tidy-14 -p cmake-cache/ -quiet
+      1> $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT
+      2> /dev/null ;
+      fi
+
+    # Check job results
+    - (! egrep -A 3 "error:|warning:|note:" $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT)
+    - echo "No clang-tidy errors found"
   artifacts:
     paths:
       - $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT
     when: on_failure
   timeout: 3h
 
-clang-tidy:
-  extends: .base-clang-tidy
-  rules:
-    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
-      when: never
-    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
-      when: on_success
-    - changes:
-        paths:
-          - .clang-tidy
-        compare_to: master
-      when: on_success
-  script:
-    - run-clang-tidy-14 -p cmake-cache/ -quiet
-      1> $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT
-      2> /dev/null
-    - (! egrep -A 3 "error:|warning:|note:" $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT)
-    - echo "No clang-tidy errors found"
-
-clang-tidy-diff:
-  extends: .base-clang-tidy
-  rules:
-    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
-      when: never
-    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
-      when: never
-    - changes:
-        paths:
-          - .clang-tidy
-        compare_to: master
-      when: never
-    - when: on_success
-  script:
-    - git remote add upstream https://gitlab.com/nsnam/ns-3-dev.git
-    - git fetch upstream master
-    # File paths generated by git diff are relative to the working tree. Therefore, iregex should only contain paths relative to the working tree.
-    - git diff -U0 upstream/master |
-      clang-tidy-diff-14.py -path cmake-cache/ -p1 -quiet -use-color
-      -iregex "(contrib|examples|src|scratch|utils)\/.+\.(cpp|cc|cxx|c|h|hpp)"
-      1> $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT
-      2> /dev/null
-    - if egrep -A 3 "file not found \[clang-diagnostic-error\]" $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT ; then
-      echo "Clang-tidy could not find the above files. Running a full clang-tidy check." ;
-      run-clang-tidy-14 -p cmake-cache/ -quiet
-      1> $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT
-      2> /dev/null ;
-      fi
-    - (! egrep -A 3 "error:|warning:|note:" $CLANG_TIDY_OUTPUT)
-    - echo "No clang-tidy errors found"
-
 # Emacs line
 emacs-line:
   stage: code-linting