diff --git a/tests/python/unittest/test_ci.py b/tests/python/unittest/test_ci.py
index 1e6192349d5c..7552c9cb6af3 100644
--- a/tests/python/unittest/test_ci.py
+++ b/tests/python/unittest/test_ci.py
@@ -15,14 +15,10 @@
 # specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
-import os
 import pathlib
-import pytest
-import shutil
 import subprocess
-import tempfile
-import json
 import sys
+import tempfile
 
 import pytest
 
@@ -30,7 +26,7 @@
 
 
 def test_skip_ci():
-    skip_ci_script = REPO_ROOT / "tests" / "scripts" / "git_skip_ci.sh"
+    skip_ci_script = REPO_ROOT / "tests" / "scripts" / "git_skip_ci.py"
 
     class TempGit:
         def __init__(self, cwd):
@@ -47,14 +43,17 @@ def test(commands, should_skip, why):
             # Jenkins git is too old and doesn't have 'git init --initial-branch'
             git.run("init")
             git.run("checkout", "-b", "main")
+            git.run("remote", "add", "origin", "https://github.com/apache/tvm.git")
             git.run("config", "user.name", "ci")
             git.run("config", "user.email", "email@example.com")
             git.run("commit", "--allow-empty", "--message", "base commit")
             for command in commands:
                 git.run(*command)
             pr_number = "1234"
-            proc = subprocess.run([str(skip_ci_script), pr_number], cwd=dir)
-            expected = 1 if should_skip else 0
+            proc = subprocess.run(
+                [str(skip_ci_script), "--pr", pr_number, "--pr-title", "[skip ci] test"], cwd=dir
+            )
+            expected = 0 if should_skip else 1
             assert proc.returncode == expected, why
 
     test(
diff --git a/tests/scripts/git_skip_ci.py b/tests/scripts/git_skip_ci.py
index 7946ea33872e..73fcc6490ab8 100755
--- a/tests/scripts/git_skip_ci.py
+++ b/tests/scripts/git_skip_ci.py
@@ -74,6 +74,9 @@ def git(command):
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=help)
     parser.add_argument("--pr", required=True)
     parser.add_argument("--remote", default="origin", help="ssh remote to parse")
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--pr-title", help="(testing) PR title to use instead of fetching from GitHub"
+    )
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
     branch = git(["rev-parse", "--abbrev-ref", "HEAD"])
@@ -83,10 +86,15 @@ def git(command):
     def check_pr_title():
         remote = git(["config", "--get", f"remote.{args.remote}.url"])
         user, repo = parse_remote(remote)
-        github = GitHubRepo(token=os.environ["TOKEN"], user=user, repo=repo)
-        pr = github.get(f"pulls/{args.pr}")
-        print("pr title:", pr["title"])
-        return pr["title"].startswith("[skip ci]")
+
+        if args.pr_title:
+            title = args.pr_title
+        else:
+            github = GitHubRepo(token=os.environ["TOKEN"], user=user, repo=repo)
+            pr = github.get(f"pulls/{args.pr}")
+            title = pr["title"]
+        print("pr title:", title)
+        return title.startswith("[skip ci]")
 
     if (
         args.pr != "null"