Shortens deploy_production label, adds a deploy_test toggle for manual runs, and skips backend/frontend gates when that side of the repo has no changes

Push-to-master keeps auto-deploying to test unchanged. A new deploy_test input (default false) lets a manual workflow_dispatch run opt into a test deploy instead of it firing by default. A new changes job (dorny/paths-filter) gates the backend and frontend build/test/lint jobs on whether their side of the repo actually changed, shortening runs that only touch one side; publish jobs still run whenever either side changed, and manual runs always run everything since there's no commit to diff against.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01VhySVFARKAP89WqQ3Kff8M

.gitea/workflows/continuous_integration.yaml

@@ -3,8 +3,12 @@ name: Continuous Integration
 on:
   workflow_dispatch:
     inputs:
+      deploy_test:
+        description: 'Deploy to Test'
+        type: boolean
+        default: false
       deploy_production:
-        description: 'Also deploy to production after a successful build/test (in addition to the automatic test deploy)'
+        description: 'Deploy to Production'
         type: boolean
         default: false
   pull_request:
@@ -62,8 +66,47 @@ jobs:
           echo "health_check_url_test=${{ env.HEALTH_CHECK_URL_TEST }}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
           echo "health_check_url_production=${{ env.HEALTH_CHECK_URL_PRODUCTION }}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
+  # Path-based skip: keeps the pipeline short when a change only touches one side of the repo.
+  # fetch-depth: 0 gives paths-filter full local git history to diff against, rather than relying
+  # on its GitHub-API fallback for missing history, which targets GitHub's REST API and cannot be
+  # assumed to work against a Gitea remote. Changes under the workflow files themselves count as
+  # both backend and frontend, so a workflow edit is never left partially untested. A manual
+  # workflow_dispatch run has no `before` commit to diff against and is always an explicit request
+  # to run everything, so it force-reports both sides as changed rather than trusting the filter.
+  changes:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    outputs:
+      backend: ${{ github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' || steps.filter.outputs.backend == 'true' }}
+      frontend: ${{ github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' || steps.filter.outputs.frontend == 'true' }}
+    steps:
+      # Skipped on workflow_dispatch: there's no `before` commit to diff against, and a manual run
+      # always force-reports both sides changed anyway (see the outputs above), so the diff would be
+      # wasted work.
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        if: github.event_name != 'workflow_dispatch'
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+      - uses: dorny/paths-filter@v3
+        if: github.event_name != 'workflow_dispatch'
+        id: filter
+        with:
+          filters: |
+            workflow: &workflow
+              - '.gitea/workflows/**'
+            backend:
+              - *workflow
+              - 'src/**'
+              - 'tests/**'
+              - '*.sln'
+              - '**/*.csproj'
+            frontend:
+              - *workflow
+              - 'frontend/**'
+
   # --- Gate 1: backend build ---
   backend-build:
+    needs: changes
+    if: needs.changes.outputs.backend == 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -75,7 +118,8 @@ jobs:
 
   # --- Gate 2: backend tests ---
   backend-test:
-    needs: backend-build
+    needs: [changes, backend-build]
+    if: needs.changes.outputs.backend == 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -90,6 +134,8 @@ jobs:
   # step greps its own output and fails deliberately (FR-22, D-12, OPEN-03 — closed by pinning
   # Microsoft.OpenApi and System.Security.Cryptography.Xml in the relevant .csproj files).
   vulnerability-scan:
+    needs: changes
+    if: needs.changes.outputs.backend == 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -106,6 +152,8 @@ jobs:
           fi
 
   frontend-prepare:
+    needs: changes
+    if: needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -135,7 +183,8 @@ jobs:
   # that environment's Vite variables set and copies the result into wwwroot/admin before
   # `dotnet publish` runs — see that step's comment for why this isn't an MSBuild target instead.
   frontend-build:
-    needs: frontend-prepare
+    needs: [changes, frontend-prepare]
+    if: needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -163,7 +212,8 @@ jobs:
 
   # --- Gate 5: frontend tests ---
   frontend-test:
-    needs: frontend-prepare
+    needs: [changes, frontend-prepare]
+    if: needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -191,7 +241,8 @@ jobs:
 
   # --- Gate 6: frontend lint / format-check ---
   frontend-lint:
-    needs: frontend-prepare
+    needs: [changes, frontend-prepare]
+    if: needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -227,7 +278,15 @@ jobs:
   # gate cannot see the actual runtime CSP configuration; it only catches drift between the frontend
   # build and what this variable claims the CSP allows.
   publish-test:
-    needs: [backend-build, backend-test, vulnerability-scan, frontend-build, frontend-test, frontend-lint]
+    needs: [changes, backend-build, backend-test, vulnerability-scan, frontend-build, frontend-test, frontend-lint]
+    # always() bypasses the automatic skip-cascade from a gate job that was itself skipped (because
+    # its side of the repo didn't change) — !failure() && !cancelled() still blocks a run where a
+    # gate that DID run actually failed. The remaining 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.
+    if: |
+      always() && !failure() && !cancelled() &&
+      (needs.changes.outputs.backend == 'true' || needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true')
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -289,8 +348,12 @@ jobs:
   # a distinct job rather than a parameterized reuse of publish-test, because VITE_APP_ENV is a
   # Vite build-time value: one dist/ bundle cannot be tagged as both 'test' and 'production' (FR-05).
   publish-production:
-    needs: [backend-build, backend-test, vulnerability-scan, frontend-build, frontend-test, frontend-lint]
+    needs: [changes, backend-build, backend-test, vulnerability-scan, frontend-build, frontend-test, frontend-lint]
-    if: github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && github.event.inputs.deploy_production == 'true'
+    # See publish-test's comment on the always()/!failure()/!cancelled() combination above.
+    if: |
+      always() && !failure() && !cancelled() &&
+      github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && github.event.inputs.deploy_production == 'true' &&
+      (needs.changes.outputs.backend == 'true' || needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true')
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -342,10 +405,13 @@ jobs:
           path: ${{ env.ARTIFACT_NAME_PRODUCTION }}
           retention-days: 1
 
-  # Automatic test deploy on push to master, or on any workflow_dispatch run (FR-03, D-01, D-09).
+  # Automatic test deploy on every push to master (unchanged — a merge should reach test without
+  # extra steps). A manual workflow_dispatch run only deploys to test when deploy_test is checked,
+  # since a dispatch run is often just re-running CI/production, not a new test build (FR-03, D-01,
+  # D-09).
   deploy-test:
     needs: [publish-test, config]
-    if: github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' || (github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/master')
+    if: (github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && github.event.inputs.deploy_test == 'true') || (github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/master')
     uses: ./.gitea/workflows/deploy-scp.yaml
     secrets: inherit
     with: