diff --git a/ci/kokoro/build-merge-into-chromeos.sh b/ci/kokoro/build-merge-into-chromeos.sh
index be3e9f06cf..9a56b38fd9 100755
--- a/ci/kokoro/build-merge-into-chromeos.sh
+++ b/ci/kokoro/build-merge-into-chromeos.sh
@@ -26,16 +26,20 @@ main() {
     fi
 
     # Run git cookie auth daemon to pull git http cookies for this GCE instance.
-    local gcompute_path="${KOKORO_ARTIFACTS_DIR}/gcompute-tools"
-    git clone "https://gerrit.googlesource.com/gcompute-tools" "$gcompute_path"
-    ${gcompute_path}/git-cookie-authdaemon
+    # Don't do this if a cookie already exists, which allow us to test this script locally.
+    if ! git config http.cookiefile; then
+        local gcompute_path="${KOKORO_ARTIFACTS_DIR}/gcompute-tools"
+        git clone "https://gerrit.googlesource.com/gcompute-tools" "$gcompute_path"
+        ${gcompute_path}/git-cookie-authdaemon
+    fi
 
     # Overwrite kokoro default with service account we are actually using to submit code.
     git config user.name "Crosvm Bot"
     git config user.email "crosvm-bot@crosvm-packages.iam.gserviceaccount.com"
 
-    ./tools/chromeos/merge_bot -v update-merges --is-bot HEAD
-    ./tools/chromeos/merge_bot -v update-dry-runs --is-bot HEAD
+    local target_rev=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
+    ./tools/chromeos/merge_bot -v update-merges --is-bot "$target_rev"
+    ./tools/chromeos/merge_bot -v update-dry-runs --is-bot "$target_rev"
 }
 
 main