diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/continuous_integration.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/continuous_integration.yaml
index 5639319..7f3fcce 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/continuous_integration.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/continuous_integration.yaml
@@ -53,6 +53,13 @@ jobs:
       health_check_url_test: ${{ steps.set.outputs.health_check_url_test }}
       health_check_url_production: ${{ steps.set.outputs.health_check_url_production }}
     steps:
+      # Gitea has no reliable way to see a past run's workflow_dispatch input values from the UI, so
+      # this logs them explicitly — the only durable record of what was actually checked for a run.
+      - name: Log dispatch inputs
+        if: github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch'
+        run: |
+          echo "Deploy to Test: ${{ github.event.inputs.deploy_test }}"
+          echo "Deploy to Production: ${{ github.event.inputs.deploy_production }}"
       - id: set
         run: |
           echo "artifact_name_test=${{ env.ARTIFACT_NAME_TEST }}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
@@ -283,9 +290,11 @@ jobs:
     # its side of the repo didn't change). Gitea Actions only implements always() from the GitHub
     # Actions status-check functions — success()/failure()/cancelled() are not supported — so each
     # gate's outcome is checked explicitly via needs.<job>.result instead: a skipped gate is fine,
-    # but a gate that actually ran and failed or was cancelled still blocks the publish. The final
+    # but a gate that actually ran and failed or was cancelled still blocks the publish. The
     # changes.outputs check makes sure there's something to publish at all: a run that touched
-    # neither backend nor frontend has nothing new to deploy.
+    # neither backend nor frontend has nothing new to deploy. The final line skips this build on a
+    # manual workflow_dispatch run that didn't check deploy_test — building and uploading a test
+    # artifact nobody is going to deploy is wasted work; push/PR runs are unaffected.
     if: |
       always() &&
       needs.changes.result == 'success' &&
@@ -295,7 +304,8 @@ jobs:
       needs.frontend-build.result != 'failure' && needs.frontend-build.result != 'cancelled' &&
       needs.frontend-test.result != 'failure' && needs.frontend-test.result != 'cancelled' &&
       needs.frontend-lint.result != 'failure' && needs.frontend-lint.result != 'cancelled' &&
-      (needs.changes.outputs.backend == 'true' || needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true')
+      (needs.changes.outputs.backend == 'true' || needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true') &&
+      (github.event_name != 'workflow_dispatch' || github.event.inputs.deploy_test == 'true')
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4