diff --git a/.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml b/.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml
index 1e64dabd32a79..ffdf47c1d8f21 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@ on:
     - '**.hpp'
     - '**/CMakeLists.txt'
     - '**/Makefile'
+    - 'build-scripts/clang-tidy.sh'
+    - 'build-scripts/clang-tidy-wrapper.sh'
+    - 'build-scripts/get_affected_files.py'
     - '.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml'
 
 # We only care about the latest revision of a PR, so cancel all previous instances.
@@ -34,7 +37,7 @@ jobs:
         uses: fkirc/skip-duplicate-actions@master
         with:
           cancel_others: 'true'
-          paths: '[ "**.cpp", "**.h", "**.c", "**/CMakeLists.txt", "**/Makefile", "**.hpp", "**.cmake", ".github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml" ]'
+          paths: '[ "**.cpp", "**.h", "**.c", "**/CMakeLists.txt", "**/Makefile", "**.hpp", "**.cmake", "build-scripts/clang-tidy.sh", "build-scripts/clang-tidy-wrapper.sh", "build-scripts/get_affected_files.py", ".github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml" ]'
   build:
     needs: skip-duplicates
     if: ${{ needs.skip-duplicates.outputs.should_skip != 'true' }}
@@ -91,5 +94,10 @@ jobs:
       run: bash ./build-scripts/clang-tidy.sh
     - name: show most time consuming checks
       if: always()
-      run: |
-        jq -n 'reduce(inputs.profile | to_entries[]) as {$key,$value} ({}; .[$key] += $value) | with_entries(select(.key|contains(".wall"))) | to_entries | sort_by(.value) | reverse | .[0:10] | from_entries' clang-tidy-trace/*.json
+      run: | # the folder may not exist if there is no file to analyze
+        if [ -d clang-tidy-trace ]
+        then
+          jq -n 'reduce(inputs.profile | to_entries[]) as {$key,$value} ({}; .[$key] += $value) | with_entries(select(.key|contains(".wall"))) | to_entries | sort_by(.value) | reverse | .[0:10] | from_entries' clang-tidy-trace/*.json
+        else
+          echo "clang-tidy-trace folder not found."
+        fi
diff --git a/build-scripts/clang-tidy.sh b/build-scripts/clang-tidy.sh
index 2f97bbadfb524..151b277fc79c4 100755
--- a/build-scripts/clang-tidy.sh
+++ b/build-scripts/clang-tidy.sh
@@ -124,13 +124,16 @@ fi
 printf "Subset to analyze: '%s'\n" "$CATA_CLANG_TIDY_SUBSET"
 
 # We might need to analyze only a subset of the files if they have been split
-# into multiple jobs for efficiency
+# into multiple jobs for efficiency. The paths from `compile_commands.json` can
+# be absolute but the paths from `get_affected_files.py` are relative, so both
+# formats are matched. Exit code 1 from grep (meaning no match) is ignored in
+# case one subset contains no file to analyze.
 case "$CATA_CLANG_TIDY_SUBSET" in
     ( src )
-        tidyable_cpp_files=$(printf '%s\n' "$tidyable_cpp_files" | grep '/src/')
+        tidyable_cpp_files=$(printf '%s\n' "$tidyable_cpp_files" | grep -E '(^|/)src/' || [[ $? == 1 ]])
         ;;
     ( other )
-        tidyable_cpp_files=$(printf '%s\n' "$tidyable_cpp_files" | grep -v '/src/')
+        tidyable_cpp_files=$(printf '%s\n' "$tidyable_cpp_files" | grep -Ev '(^|/)src/' || [[ $? == 1 ]])
         ;;
 esac