Build watch paths (2)

Last updated May 29, 2026 When you connect a git repository to Workers, by default a change to any file in the repository will trigger a build. You can configure Workers to include or exclude specific paths to specify if Workers should skip a build for a given path. This can be especially helpful if you are using a monorepo project structure and want to limit the number of builds being kicked off.

Configure Paths

To configure which paths are included and excluded:

  1. In Overview, select your Workers project.
  2. Go to Settings > Build > Build watch paths. Workers will default to setting your project’s includes paths to everything ([*]) and excludes paths to nothing ( []).

The configuration fields can be filled in two ways:

  • Static filepaths: Enter the precise name of the file you are looking to include or exclude (for example, docs/README.md).
  • Wildcard syntax: Use wildcards to match multiple path directories. You can specify wildcards at the start or end of your rule.

Wildcard syntax

A wildcard (*) is a character that is used within rules. It can be placed alone to match anything or placed at the start or end of a rule to allow for better control over branch configuration. A wildcard will match zero or more characters. For example, if you wanted to match all branches that started with fix/ then you would create the rule fix/* to match strings like fix/1, fix/bugs, or fix/.

For each path in a push event, build watch paths will be evaluated as follows:

  • Paths satisfying excludes conditions are ignored first
  • Any remaining paths are checked against includes conditions
  • If any matching path is found, a build is triggered. Otherwise the build is skipped

Workers will bypass the path matching for a push event and default to building the project if:

  • A push event contains 0 file changes, in case a user pushes an empty push event to trigger a build
  • A push event contains 3000+ file changes or 20+ commits

Examples

Example 1

If you want to trigger a build from all changes within a set of directories, such as all changes in the folders project-a/ and packages/

  • Include paths: project-a/*, packages/*
  • Exclude paths: ``

Example 2

If you want to trigger a build for any changes, but want to exclude changes to a certain directory, such as all changes in a docs/ directory

  • Include paths: *
  • Exclude paths: docs/*

Example 3

If you want to trigger a build for a specific file or specific filetype, for example all files ending in .md.

  • Include paths: *.md
  • Exclude paths: ``

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description: Understand the different settings associated with your build. title: Configuration image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/ci-cd/builds/configuration/og.png?v=757cd9bbad5852dd

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