diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index b18da4f6c43f..d78ac48a795f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -96,6 +96,8 @@ jobs:
             profiling_node:
               - 'packages/profiling-node/**'
               - 'dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/node-profiling/**'
+            any_code:
+              - '!**/*.md'
 
 
       - name: Get PR labels
@@ -109,6 +111,8 @@ jobs:
       is_release: ${{ startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/heads/release/') }}
       changed_profiling_node: ${{ steps.changed.outputs.profiling_node == 'true' }}
       changed_ci: ${{ steps.changed.outputs.workflow == 'true' }}
+      changed_any_code: ${{ steps.changed.outputs.any_code == 'true' }}
+
       # When merging into master, or from master
       is_gitflow_sync: ${{ github.head_ref == 'master' || github.ref == 'refs/heads/master' }}
       has_gitflow_label:
@@ -123,6 +127,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
     timeout-minutes: 15
     if: |
+      (needs.job_get_metadata.outputs.changed_any_code) &&
       (needs.job_get_metadata.outputs.is_gitflow_sync == 'false' && needs.job_get_metadata.outputs.has_gitflow_label == 'false')
     steps:
       - name: Check out base commit (${{ github.event.pull_request.base.sha }})
@@ -274,7 +279,7 @@ jobs:
 
   job_check_format:
     name: Check file formatting
-    needs: [job_get_metadata, job_build]
+    needs: [job_get_metadata]
     timeout-minutes: 10
     runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
     steps:
@@ -282,16 +287,29 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           ref: ${{ env.HEAD_COMMIT }}
+
       - name: Set up Node
         uses: actions/setup-node@v4
         with:
           node-version-file: 'package.json'
+
+        # we use a hash of yarn.lock as our cache key, because if it hasn't changed, our dependencies haven't changed,
+        # so no need to reinstall them
+      - name: Compute dependency cache key
+        id: compute_lockfile_hash
+        run: echo "hash=${{ hashFiles('yarn.lock', '**/package.json') }}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+
       - name: Check dependency cache
-        uses: actions/cache/restore@v4
+        uses: actions/cache@v4
+        id: cache_dependencies
         with:
           path: ${{ env.CACHED_DEPENDENCY_PATHS }}
-          key: ${{ needs.job_build.outputs.dependency_cache_key }}
-          fail-on-cache-miss: true
+          key: ${{ steps.compute_lockfile_hash.outputs.hash }}
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        if: steps.cache_dependencies.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
+        run: yarn install --ignore-engines --frozen-lockfile
+
       - name: Check file formatting
         run: yarn lint:prettier && yarn lint:biome