bug: Mintlify PR previews never build in celo-org/docs, including after fork approval #2430

What happened? (exact commands/steps + REAL output)

None of the last 25 PRs in this repo got a Mintlify preview deployment, whether they came from a branch of this repo or from a fork. Mintlify's checks report one of two states, and neither ever reaches a build:

• Same-repo PRs: Mintlify Deployment ends skipped, with the title "Skipping deployment" and the summary "No eligible deployments found for changes".
• Fork PRs: Mintlify Preview (fork) stays neutral ("Approval required") until someone with write access approves the commit. After approval it turns success ("Approved by @…"), but no build follows. There is no deployment, no preview URL, and no further Mintlify check or comment.

I confirmed this by running the commands below on 2026-11-04. On #2425 I approved the preview at 10:21 UTC and checked again at 12:34 UTC, more than two hours later. There was still no deployment for 6b5c33e and no preview link.

Expected: a PR that changes content gets a preview URL, as mintlify[bot] implies it will ("Mintlify won't build a preview until someone with write access approves commit …").

Pushes to main do deploy: the repo's deployments list shows staging deployments for main commits (for example 61b9bead on 2026-11-03). So the GitHub App is installed and works. Only PR previews are affected.

Steps to reproduce

1. Pick any open PR. For each Mintlify check run on its head commit:

   H=$(gh pr view <N> -R celo-org/docs --json headRefOid -q .headRefOid)
   gh api repos/celo-org/docs/commits/$H/check-runs \
     --jq '.check_runs[]|select(.app.slug=="mintlify")|"\(.name)|\(.conclusion)|\(.output.title)|\(.output.summary)"'

2. Check for a preview deployment or status:

   gh api "repos/celo-org/docs/deployments?sha=$H" --jq length       # 0
   gh api repos/celo-org/docs/commits/$H/status --jq '.statuses|length'  # 0

3. On a fork PR, a maintainer clicks "Approve preview" in the mintlify[bot] comment, then repeats steps 1–2. The fork check turns success, and step 2 still returns 0.

Root cause (file:line), if known

Not in this repo. Nothing in docs.json or .github/workflows/ controls Mintlify previews. My guess, which I have not verified because I have no access to the Mintlify dashboard: preview deployments are turned off for this project, or limited so that no PR qualifies. Fork approval happens in the Mintlify GitHub App before that setting is checked, so approval can succeed and still produce nothing.

Version / commit tested

Mintlify GitHub App checks as of 2026-11-04; #2425 at 6b5c33e.

Where is the defect (not just where you noticed it)?

In the Mintlify project settings for docs.celo.org, which only someone with Mintlify dashboard access can see. It affects every content PR, from a fork or not. In practice, reviewers can only preview locally with mint dev.

How would we know it's fixed?

The next content PR from a branch of this repo shows a Mintlify check other than skipped, plus a preview URL in a check, status, deployment or bot comment. For fork PRs, the same appears after "Approve preview".

Environment

celo-org/docs, Mintlify GitHub App (mintlify checks), docs.celo.org project.

Priority

medium

Logs / screenshots

Mintlify checks on the head commit of the last 25 PRs (#2395–#2429), collected 2026-11-04:

* #2428 was a draft PR opened from a same-repo branch that pointed at the #2425 commit. It was a test of whether a same-repo PR would get a preview. It showed the same skipped result, and it was closed without merging.

None of these PRs has a deployment (/deployments?sha=… is empty) or a commit status from Mintlify.

Size

S — hours

🤖 Generated with Claude Code