[jourlez]

Why

Every Actions minute counts against the org's 2000 free minutes. Docs used 130 Linux minutes in October across 4 workflows.

Measured evidence (run list 2026-09-02..10-19)

• Docs Independence Check ran on PRs and on every push to dev, which mirrors main: 5 push runs repeated checks that had already passed on the PR.
• Docs Build Check (21 PR runs) and Docs Independence Check (15 PR runs) have no path filter, so a README or plan-file edit runs the Sphinx build, link check, sample typecheck and Vale.
• Deploy Documentation ran on every push to main (11 push runs, 51 wall min), including edits that do not change a published page. Its verify_live_job polls for up to 15 min on a runner.
• Both pr_check_workflow.yml jobs and the deploy job installed the Sphinx stack with no pip cache.
• sdk_drift.yml is a weekly cron (about 4 runs a month, about 1 to 2 min each): kept, the frequency is proportionate to npm publish cadence.
• No branch protection or ruleset exists on main, so path filters cannot leave a required check pending.

Changes

• docs_checks.yml: drop the push: dev trigger; PR runs only when docs/**, .vale* or the workflow changes.
• pr_check_workflow.yml: same path filter; cache: pip keyed on docs/requirements.txt for both jobs.
• github_pages_workflow.yml: push-to-main deploys only when docs/** or the workflow changes; workflow_dispatch still deploys on demand; pip cache.
• renovate.json: base branch main confirmed correct (also the default branch). Already weekly on Mondays; added weekly groups for GitHub Actions, the Sphinx toolchain and docs/_samples npm packages. No lockfiles exist here, so lockfile maintenance does not apply.

Expected savings

Small, because this repo is small: an estimated 15 to 25 Linux minutes per month (skipped runs on non-docs edits, no dev push duplicates, faster installs, fewer Renovate PR runs). Not measurable yet on this sample size.

Verification

actionlint and yamllint clean on all four workflows, renovate-config-validator passes, act -n dry-run of pr_check_workflow.yml succeeds for both jobs.