diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index cff15723a1d70f9950813acc90c7002d07aa07a0..1fb4b3d1e235b7ee8a2090de4c90ad37d10b7260 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -239,8 +239,10 @@ humanDataHub:
   - GENCODE=$(echo ${references} | grep -o ${refName}.* | cut -d '.' -f3)
   - query=$(echo 'https://'${referenceBase}'/ermrest/catalog/2/entity/RNASeq:Reference_Genome/Reference_Version='${GRCv}'.'${GRCp}'/Annotation_Version=GENCODE%20'${GENCODE})
   - curl --request GET ${query} > refQuery.json
-  - refURL=$(python ./workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py)
-  - singularity run 'docker://gudmaprbk/deriva1.3:1.0.0' deriva-hatrac-cli --host ${referenceBase} get ${refURL}
+  - refURL=$(python ./workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py --return URL)
+  - refMD5=$(python ./workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py --return MD5)
+  - test=$(singularity run 'docker://gudmaprbk/deriva1.3:1.0.0' deriva-hatrac-cli --host ${referenceBase} ls /hatrac/resources/rnaseq/pipeline/reference_genome/ | grep -o ${refMD5})
+  - if [ "${test}" == "" ]; then exit 1; fi
 
 mousenDataHub:
   stage: reference
@@ -260,9 +262,10 @@ mousenDataHub:
   - GENCODE=$(echo ${references} | grep -o ${refName}.* | cut -d '.' -f3)
   - query=$(echo 'https://'${referenceBase}'/ermrest/catalog/2/entity/RNASeq:Reference_Genome/Reference_Version='${GRCv}'.'${GRCp}'/Annotation_Version=GENCODE%20'${GENCODE})
   - curl --request GET ${query} > refQuery.json
-  - refURL=$(python ./workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py)
-  - pip install --user deriva==1.3.0
-  - singularity run 'docker://gudmaprbk/deriva1.3:1.0.0' deriva-hatrac-cli --host ${referenceBase} get ${refURL}
+  - refURL=$(python ./workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py --return URL)
+  - refMD5=$(python ./workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py --return MD5)
+  - test=$(singularity run 'docker://gudmaprbk/deriva1.3:1.0.0' deriva-hatrac-cli --host ${referenceBase} ls /hatrac/resources/rnaseq/pipeline/reference_genome/ | grep -o ${refMD5})
+  - if [ "${test}" == "" ]; then exit 1; fi
 
 
 integration_se:
diff --git a/workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py b/workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py
index 7c9dfa9d2a67c433e40fc015087dac9a2dfc1164..8f587514e23ed76dfe8d95de657884c08c74dcbc 100644
--- a/workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py
+++ b/workflow/scripts/extractRefData.py
@@ -5,10 +5,20 @@ import pandas as pd
 import warnings
 warnings.simplefilter(action='ignore', category=FutureWarning)
 
+def get_args():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    parser.add_argument('-r', '--return',help="The parameter to return (URL or MD5).",required=True)
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+    return args
+
 def main():
+    args = get_args()
     refQuery=pd.read_json("refQuery.json")
     if refQuery["File_URL"].count() == 1:
-       print(refQuery["File_URL"].values[0])
+        if args.return == "URL":
+            print(refQuery["File_URL"].values[0])
+        elif args.return == "MD5":
+            print(refQuery["File_MD5"].values[0])
     else:
         raise Exception("Multple references found: \n%s" %
             refQuery["RID"])