diff --git a/.github/workflows/preview-build.yml b/.github/workflows/preview-build.yml
index 3f2997e9f..645f3c371 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/preview-build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/preview-build.yml
@@ -13,15 +13,29 @@ on:
         type: string
         required: false
         default: 'true'
+      path-pattern:
+        description: 'Path pattern to filter files. Only if changed files match the pattern, the workflow will continue.'
+        type: string
+        default: '**'
+        required: false
 
 permissions: 
   contents: read
+  pull-requests: read
 
 jobs:
   build:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
+
+      - name: Get changed files
+        id: check-files
+        uses: tj-actions/changed-files@d6e91a2266cdb9d62096cebf1e8546899c6aa18f # v45.0.6
+        with:
+          files: ${{ inputs.path-pattern != '' && inputs.path-pattern || '**' }}
+            
       - name: Checkout
+        if: steps.check-files.outputs.any_changed == 'true'
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with: 
           persist-credentials: false
@@ -30,11 +44,13 @@ jobs:
         env:
           PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
           PR_REF: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
+          ANY_CHANGED: ${{ steps.check-files.outputs.any_changed }}
         run: |
           cat << EOF > pull_request.json
           {
             "number": ${PR_NUMBER},
-            "ref": "${PR_REF}"
+            "ref": "${PR_REF}",
+            "any_changed": ${ANY_CHANGED}
           }
           EOF
       
@@ -48,26 +64,28 @@ jobs:
           compression-level: 1
 
       - name: Bootstrap Action Workspace
-        if: github.repository == 'elastic/docs-builder'
+        if: github.repository == 'elastic/docs-builder' && steps.check-files.outputs.any_changed == 'true'
         uses: ./.github/actions/bootstrap
 
       # we run our artifact directly please use the prebuild
       # elastic/docs-builder@main GitHub Action for all other repositories!
       - name: Build documentation
-        if: github.repository == 'elastic/docs-builder'
+        if: github.repository == 'elastic/docs-builder' && steps.check-files.outputs.any_changed == 'true'
         env:
           PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
         run: |
           dotnet run --project src/docs-builder -- --strict --path-prefix "/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/pull/${PR_NUMBER}"
 
       - name: Build documentation
-        if: github.repository != 'elastic/docs-builder'
+        if: github.repository != 'elastic/docs-builder' && steps.check-files.outputs.any_changed == 'true'
         uses: elastic/docs-builder@main
         continue-on-error: ${{ fromJSON(inputs.continue-on-error != '' && inputs.continue-on-error || 'false') }}
         with:
           prefix: "/${{ github.repository }}/pull/${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}"
           strict: ${{ fromJSON(inputs.strict != '' && inputs.strict || 'true') }}
+
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        if: steps.check-files.outputs.any_changed == 'true'
         with:
           name: docs
           path: .artifacts/docs/html/
diff --git a/.github/workflows/preview-cleanup.yml b/.github/workflows/preview-cleanup.yml
index d08c84a35..ccd157c11 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/preview-cleanup.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/preview-cleanup.yml
@@ -14,15 +14,9 @@ jobs:
   destroy:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
-      - uses: elastic/docs-builder/.github/actions/aws-auth@main
-      - name: Delete s3 objects
-        env:
-          PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
-        run: |
-            aws s3 rm "s3://elastic-docs-v3-website-preview/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/pull/${PR_NUMBER}" --recursive
-
       - name: Delete GitHub environment
         uses: actions/github-script@v7
+        id: delete-deployment
         with:
           script: |
             const { owner, repo } = context.repo;
@@ -31,6 +25,7 @@ jobs:
               repo,
               environment: `docs-preview-${context.issue.number}`
             });
+            core.setOutput('is-empty', deployments.data.length === 0)
             for (const deployment of deployments.data) {
               await github.rest.repos.createDeploymentStatus({
                 owner,
@@ -45,3 +40,13 @@ jobs:
                 deployment_id: deployment.id
               });
             }
+
+      - uses: elastic/docs-builder/.github/actions/aws-auth@main
+        if: steps.delete-deployment.outputs.is-empty == 'false'
+
+      - name: Delete s3 objects
+        if: steps.delete-deployment.outputs.is-empty == 'false'
+        env:
+          PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
+        run: |
+          aws s3 rm "s3://elastic-docs-v3-website-preview/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/pull/${PR_NUMBER}" --recursive
diff --git a/.github/workflows/preview-deploy.yml b/.github/workflows/preview-deploy.yml
index 899fa55d7..fb129175c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/preview-deploy.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/preview-deploy.yml
@@ -14,8 +14,13 @@ permissions:
   actions: read
 
 jobs:
-  docs-deploy:
+  pull-request-data:
+    if: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.conclusion == 'success' }}
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    outputs: 
+      number: ${{ steps.pull_request.outputs.number }}
+      ref: ${{ steps.pull_request.outputs.ref }}
+      any_changed: ${{ steps.pull_request.outputs.any_changed }}
     steps:
       - name: Download PR data
         env:
@@ -30,14 +35,23 @@ jobs:
           {
             echo "number=$(jq -r '.number' pull_request.json)"
             echo "ref=$(jq -r '.ref' pull_request.json)"
+            echo "any_changed=$(jq -r '.any_changed' pull_request.json)"
           } >> "${GITHUB_OUTPUT}"
-
+    
+  deploy:
+    needs: pull-request-data
+    if: needs.pull-request-data.outputs.any_changed == 'true'
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    concurrency: 
+      group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ needs.pull-request-data.outputs.number }}
+      cancel-in-progress: true
+    steps:
       - name: Create Deployment
         uses: actions/github-script@v7
         id: deployment
         env:
-          PR_NUMBER: ${{ steps.pull_request.outputs.number }}
-          PR_REF: ${{ steps.pull_request.outputs.ref }}
+          PR_NUMBER: ${{ needs.pull-request-data.outputs.number }}
+          PR_REF: ${{ needs.pull-request-data.outputs.ref }}
         with:
           result-encoding: string
           script: |
@@ -72,7 +86,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Upload to S3
         env:
-          PR_NUMBER: ${{ steps.pull_request.outputs.number }}
+          PR_NUMBER: ${{ needs.pull-request-data.outputs.number }}
         run: |
           aws s3 sync ./html "s3://elastic-docs-v3-website-preview/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/pull/${PR_NUMBER}" --delete
           aws cloudfront create-invalidation --distribution-id EKT7LT5PM8RKS --paths "/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/pull/${PR_NUMBER}/*"
@@ -80,6 +94,8 @@ jobs:
       - name: Update deployment status
         uses: actions/github-script@v7
         if: always() && steps.deployment.outputs.result
+        env:
+          PR_NUMBER: ${{ needs.pull-request-data.outputs.number }}
         with:
           script: |
             await github.rest.repos.createDeploymentStatus({
@@ -87,6 +103,6 @@ jobs:
               repo: context.repo.repo,
               deployment_id: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.result }},
               state: "${{ job.status == 'success' && 'success' || 'failure' }}",
-              environment_url: `https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/${context.repo.owner}/${context.repo.repo}/pull/${{ steps.pull_request.outputs.number}}`,
+              environment_url: `https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/${context.repo.owner}/${context.repo.repo}/pull/${process.env.PR_NUMBER}`,
               log_url: `https://github.com/${context.repo.owner}/${context.repo.repo}/actions/runs/${context.runId}`,
             })