diff --git a/.buildkite/pull-requests.json b/.buildkite/pull-requests.json
index 25b4cd93b14..30e77d561a2 100644
--- a/.buildkite/pull-requests.json
+++ b/.buildkite/pull-requests.json
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@
 			"set_commit_status": true,
 			"build_on_commit": true,
 			"build_on_comment": true,
-			"trigger_comment_regex": "^/?run\\s+exhaustive\\s+tests$",
-			"always_trigger_comment_regex": "^/?run\\s+exhaustive\\s+tests$",
+			"trigger_comment_regex": "^run\\s+exhaustive\\s+tests$",
+			"always_trigger_comment_regex": "^run\\s+exhaustive\\s+tests$",
 			"skip_ci_labels": [],
 			"skip_target_branches": [],
 			"skip_ci_on_only_changed": [
diff --git a/.buildkite/smart_exhaustive_tests_pipeline.yml b/.buildkite/smart_exhaustive_tests_pipeline.yml
index d19c6c7442d..61021283f46 100644
--- a/.buildkite/smart_exhaustive_tests_pipeline.yml
+++ b/.buildkite/smart_exhaustive_tests_pipeline.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 steps:
   - label: "Trigger logstash-exhaustive-tests-pipeline for PRs with qa/acceptance/ changes"
-    if: build.pull_request.id != null && build.env("GITHUB_PR_TRIGGER_COMMENT") != "/run exhaustive tests"
+    if: build.pull_request.id != null && build.env("GITHUB_PR_TRIGGER_COMMENT") != "run exhaustive tests"
     plugins:
       - monorepo-diff#v1.0.1:
           diff: "git diff --name-only origin/${GITHUB_PR_TARGET_BRANCH}...HEAD"
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ steps:
                     ELASTIC_SLACK_NOTIFICATIONS_ENABLED: false
 
   - label: "Trigger logstash-exhaustive-tests-pipeline for GitHub comments"
-    if: build.env("GITHUB_PR_TRIGGER_COMMENT") == "/run exhaustive tests"
+    if: build.env("GITHUB_PR_TRIGGER_COMMENT") == "run exhaustive tests"
     trigger: "logstash-exhaustive-tests-pipeline"
     build:
       commit: "HEAD"
diff --git a/qa/acceptance/empty.txt b/qa/acceptance/empty.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29bb2d..00000000000