Preview deployments and watchPaths in monorepos

[gngz]

Hi!

I'm using Dokploy with a monorepo containing multiple applications, each with its own watchPaths.

For example:

frontend:
  watchPaths:
    - apps/frontend/**

backend:
  watchPaths:
    - apps/backend/**

When I open a PR that only changes files under apps/backend/**, Dokploy still creates a preview deployment for the frontend application.

Are watchPaths currently expected to be ignored for Preview Deployments? If so, is there a recommended way to prevent previews from being created for applications that were not affected by the PR?

Thanks!

[DYNOSuprovo]

Yes, watchPaths is currently only evaluated for push events

In Dokploy's GitHub webhook handler (apps/dokploy/pages/api/deploy/github.ts), watchPaths filtering is implemented via shouldDeploy(app.watchPaths, normalizedCommits).

However, this check is only called in the push event block (lines ~130–165). In the pull_request event block (lines ~200–320), Dokploy creates preview deployments for all applications matching the target base branch without evaluating watchPaths, because GitHub's pull_request webhook payload does not include the per-commit modified files array.

---

Recommended Solution: Use Dokploy's "Preview Labels"

Dokploy natively supports filtering preview deployments by PR labels (app.previewLabels).

In apps/dokploy/pages/api/deploy/github.ts:

// check for labels
if (app?.previewLabels && app?.previewLabels?.length > 0) {
    let hasLabel = false;
    const labels = githubBody?.pull_request?.labels;
    for (const label of labels) {
        if (app?.previewLabels?.includes(label.name)) {
            hasLabel = true;
            break;
        }
    }
    if (!hasLabel) continue;
}

You can combine this with GitHub's official actions/labeler action to automatically trigger previews only when specific paths change:

1. Set Preview Labels in Dokploy

• In Dokploy, go to your Frontend application > Preview Deployments.
• Add a label under Preview Labels, e.g., frontend.
• For your Backend application, add backend.

2. Automate PR Labeling with GitHub Actions

Add a labeler workflow to your repository (.github/workflows/labeler.yml):

name: "Pull Request Labeler"
on:
  pull_request_target:

jobs:
  triage:
    permissions:
      contents: read
      pull-requests: write
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/labeler@v5
        with:
          repo-token: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"

And define the paths in .github/labeler.yml:

frontend:
  - apps/frontend/**/*

backend:
  - apps/backend/**/*

How it works:

1. When a PR only changes files in apps/backend/**, GitHub Actions applies only the backend label.
2. Dokploy receives the webhook with action: labeled (or opened).
3. Dokploy sees that the PR lacks the frontend label, skips the frontend preview, and only deploys the backend preview.

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If this resolves your question, please feel free to mark this as the accepted answer so others managing monorepos in Dokploy can find it!