diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index b81564d2a..d661a14eb 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -100,7 +100,11 @@ jobs:
       - run: pip install fonttools
       - run: ./autogen.sh --with-freetype --with-glib --with-cairo --with-icu --with-graphite2 --with-fontconfig
       - run: make -j32
-      - run: make check || .ci/fail.sh
+      # run-shape-fuzzer-tests.py automatically runs valgrind if see available
+      # but test/api runs it by request, we probably should normalize the approaches
+      - run: make check && make -Ctest/api check-valgrind || .ci/fail.sh
+      # informational for now
+      - run: make -Ctest/api check-symbols || true
 
   clang-everything:
     docker: