Commit_ref is null if the deploy was via a build hook

[fool]

Hi @davidsneal and welcome to our community!

Yes, $COMMIT_REF and other git-related variables will be null unless the build is triggered directly from git. We do clone the repo - so you can use commands like git status etc, to check what commit is in use. Some more advanced workflow around skipping builds based on git details are demonstrated in this thread, which you’ll probably find interesting.

[Support Guide] How can I optimize my Netlify build time?

Can you check if the ignore setting in netlify.toml might work for you? You could try something like this: git log -1 --pretty=%B | grep dependabot. Git log has all kinds of info about a commit, so you could also check who committed.