diff --git a/scripts/qiita b/scripts/qiita
index 65153b0ba..e43954ecf 100755
--- a/scripts/qiita
+++ b/scripts/qiita
@@ -452,16 +452,24 @@ def start(port, master):
 
     if master:
         def callback_function():
-            for s in qdb.software.Software.iter_active():
+            active_software = list(qdb.software.Software.iter_active())
+            sdefinition = [s for s in active_software
+                           if s.type == 'artifact definition']
+            stransformation = [s for s in active_software
+                               if s.type == 'artifact transformation']
+            # registering definition artifacts
+            for s in sdefinition:
+                s.register_commands()
+                sleep(0.5)
+            # sleep to make sure that all definitions are done
+            sleep(3)
+            for s in stransformation:
                 s.register_commands()
-                # Not sure why this sleep is needed, but when testing in the
-                # test environment, some of the plugins were not registered
-                # unless this sleep was added here
                 sleep(0.5)
 
         ioloop.add_timeout(ioloop.time() + 0.5, callback_function)
 
-    # Set a PeriodicCallback for cleaning up the threads every 10 seconds
+    # Set a PeriodicCallback for cleaning up the threads
     # To understand why this is working as expected, check the multiprocessing
     # documentation https://docs.python.org/2/library/multiprocessing.html
     # 600000 == 10 min