diff --git a/roles/fetch-sphinx-tarball/tasks/main.yaml b/roles/fetch-sphinx-tarball/tasks/main.yaml
index 1e89640cc..90239f5f0 100644
--- a/roles/fetch-sphinx-tarball/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/roles/fetch-sphinx-tarball/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -25,5 +25,5 @@
   fail:
     msg: 'No html output in "{{ sphinx_build_dir }}".'
   when:
-    - zuul_success | bool
+    - zuul_success | default(true) | bool
     - "'html' not in sphinx_dir"