diff --git a/.woodpecker/deploy.yml b/.woodpecker/deploy.yml
index 8252443..424ff74 100644
--- a/.woodpecker/deploy.yml
+++ b/.woodpecker/deploy.yml
@@ -36,6 +36,18 @@ when:
 #   until this was restored. Lesson: grep for the literal string '$${' and
 #   diff the count against the previous version before ever committing a
 #   full-file rewrite of this pipeline.
+#
+#   2026-08-26 FIX: FOLDER_STACKS/FOLDERS detection (grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/')
+#   matches ANY non-dot top-level folder in the changed-files list, including
+#   deploy/ — the shared tooling folder, not a stack. A PR touching only
+#   deploy/envparse.py caused stack-deploy.sh to be invoked with "deploy" as
+#   a stack name, which correctly errored ("No main compose file... in
+#   .../deploy") since deploy/ has no deploy.yaml. No live service was
+#   affected (the error occurs before any redeploy), but it produced a
+#   confusing pipeline failure on an otherwise-correct change. deploy/ is
+#   already unconditionally rsynced at the top of the deploy step regardless
+#   of which stacks changed, so it's safe to exclude it from the stack list
+#   everywhere folders are detected below.
 # ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 steps:
@@ -53,8 +65,9 @@ steps:
         FLAT=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/]+\.ya?ml$' || true)
 
         # Folder: any file under a subfolder (e.g. immich/immich.yml).
-        # Exclude dotfolders (.woodpecker, .git, .gitea, etc.)
-        FOLDERS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | sort -u || true)
+        # Exclude dotfolders (.woodpecker, .git, .gitea, etc.) and deploy/
+        # (shared tooling, not a stack — see note above).
+        FOLDERS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^deploy$' | sort -u || true)
 
         [ -z "$FLAT" ] && [ -z "$FOLDERS" ] && echo "No stacks changed" && exit 0
 
@@ -180,14 +193,14 @@ steps:
       - |
         CHANGED_FILES=$(echo "${CI_PIPELINE_FILES}" | tr -d '[]"' | tr ',' '\n')
         FLAT_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/]+\.yaml$' | sed 's/\.yaml$//' || true)
-        FOLDER_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | sort -u || true)
+        FOLDER_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^deploy$' | sort -u || true)
         ALL_STACKS=$(printf '%s\n%s' "$FLAT_STACKS" "$FOLDER_STACKS" | grep -v '^$' | sort -u)
         [ -z "$ALL_STACKS" ] && echo "No stacks changed, skipping" && exit 0
       - scp -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no deploy/create-secrets.sh root@$${SWARM_MANAGER_IP}:/tmp/cs.sh
       - |
         CHANGED_FILES=$(echo "${CI_PIPELINE_FILES}" | tr -d '[]"' | tr ',' '\n')
         FLAT_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/]+\.yaml$' | sed 's/\.yaml$//' || true)
-        FOLDER_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | sort -u || true)
+        FOLDER_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^deploy$' | sort -u || true)
         ALL_STACKS=$(printf '%s\n%s' "$FLAT_STACKS" "$FOLDER_STACKS" | grep -v '^$' | sort -u)
 
         for STACK in $ALL_STACKS; do
@@ -318,7 +331,7 @@ steps:
       - |
         CHANGED_FILES=$(echo "${CI_PIPELINE_FILES}" | tr -d '[]"' | tr ',' '\n')
         FLAT_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/]+\.yaml$' | sed 's/\.yaml$//' || true)
-        FOLDER_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | sort -u || true)
+        FOLDER_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^deploy$' | sort -u || true)
         ALL_STACKS=$(printf '%s\n%s' "$FLAT_STACKS" "$FOLDER_STACKS" | grep -v '^$' | sort -u)
         [ -z "$ALL_STACKS" ] && echo "No stacks changed" && exit 0
 
@@ -372,7 +385,7 @@ steps:
       - |
         CHANGED_FILES=$(echo "${CI_PIPELINE_FILES}" | tr -d '[]"' | tr ',' '\n')
         FLAT_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/]+\.yaml$' | sed 's/\.yaml$//' || true)
-        FOLDER_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | sort -u || true)
+        FOLDER_STACKS=$(echo "$CHANGED_FILES" | grep -E '^[^/.][^/]*/' | cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^deploy$' | sort -u || true)
         ALL_STACKS=$(printf '%s\n%s' "$FLAT_STACKS" "$FOLDER_STACKS" | grep -v '^$' | sort -u)
         [ -z "$ALL_STACKS" ] && exit 0