Optional ephemeral environments using GitHub PR labels

At Octopus Deploy, Matthew Allford modernized the build and release processes for microsites by integrating ephemeral environments into the Pull Request (PR) process, which allows changes to be reviewed in a real, working environment. Although these environments add value, they are not always necessary and can delay the build process or incur high costs, especially in busy repositories. To address this, Allford refactored the GitHub workflow to make the deployment of ephemeral environments optional by using PR labels, allowing developers to skip this step when appropriate without affecting essential checks or branch protection rules. This change, implemented as part of a shared workflow infrastructure, benefits all teams using the same process, demonstrating the advantages of a Platform Engineering mindset where improvements are shared and propagated across teams.