diff --git a/.github/workflows/deploy.yaml b/.github/workflows/deploy.yaml
index 3350b951ee..9d04d2393d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/deploy.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/deploy.yaml
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ jobs:
   mintlify_deployment:
     runs-on: depot-ubuntu-24.04-4
     needs:
-      - api_production_deployment
+      - detect_changes
+    if: needs.detect_changes.outputs.docs == 'true'
     name: Deploy docs
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@08eba0b27e820071cde6df949e0beb9ba4906955 # v4
diff --git a/.github/workflows/job_detect_changes.yaml b/.github/workflows/job_detect_changes.yaml
index 2edc971dd9..e70bb4a59e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/job_detect_changes.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/job_detect_changes.yaml
@@ -112,13 +112,9 @@ jobs:
               - 'internal/clickhouse/**'
               - 'go/internal/clickhouse/**'
 
-            # Documentation
+            # Documentation (apps/docs only - .md files ARE content)
             docs:
               - 'apps/docs/**'
-              - 'apps/engineering/**'
-              - '*.md'
-              - 'README*'
-              - 'CHANGELOG*'
 
             # GitHub workflows and CI/CD
             workflows:
diff --git a/apps/dashboard/README.md b/apps/dashboard/README.md
index fc56398264..f40b7303dd 100644
--- a/apps/dashboard/README.md
+++ b/apps/dashboard/README.md
@@ -44,3 +44,4 @@ from the creators of Next.js.
 Check out our
 [Next.js deployment documentation](https://nextjs.org/docs/deployment) for more
 details.
+# Test: docs workflow should skip