diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/constants.ts b/packages/vitest/src/constants.ts
index 913a436ac0b4..8c834e5e53dd 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/constants.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/constants.ts
@@ -49,7 +49,6 @@ export const configDefaults: UserConfig = Object.freeze({
   isolate: true,
   watchIgnore: [/\/node_modules\//, /\/dist\//],
   update: false,
-  watch: !process.env.CI,
   reporters: ['default'],
   silent: false,
   api: false,
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli.ts
index f8522e0c41af..2e71018c8cb8 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli.ts
@@ -62,6 +62,8 @@ async function runRelated(relatedFiles: string[] | string, argv: UserConfig) {
 }
 
 async function dev(cliFilters: string[], argv: UserConfig) {
+  if (argv.watch == null)
+    argv.watch = !process.env.CI && !argv.run
   await run(cliFilters, argv)
 }