Conditional removal of changelogs

documentation/conf.py

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import os
 import sys
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -43,7 +44,26 @@ def add_ext_to_path():
 
 source_suffix = {".rst": "restructuredtext", ".md": "markdown"}
 
-exclude_patterns = ["_build", "Thumbs.db", ".DS_Store", ".venv", "README.md"]
+
+# CI will be True if the CI environment variable is defined, otherwise False
+CI = os.getenv("CI") is not None
+
+# INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS will be True if the INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS environment variable is set to a truthy value.
+# If INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS is not set, it will fall back to the value of CI.
+INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS = bool(os.getenv("INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS", CI))
+
+_default_exclude_patterns = ["_build", "Thumbs.db", ".DS_Store", ".venv", "README.md"]
+
+# If INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS is True, no additional patterns are excluded, so changelogs will be included.
+# If INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS is False, "changelogs" will be added to the exclusion list.
+exclude_patterns = _default_exclude_patterns + (
+    [] if INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS else ["changelogs"]
+)
+
+# Result: exclude_patterns = ["_build", "Thumbs.db", ".DS_Store", ".venv", "README.md"]
+# If INCLUDE_CHANGELOGS is False, the result will also include "changelogs".
+
+
 suppress_warnings = [
     # Pygments does not fully support language features we use
     # in code blocks in the documentation. Unfortunately the best
@@ -116,4 +136,10 @@ def add_ext_to_path():
     "packages/openverse_attribution/index": "/packages/python/openverse_attribution/index.html",
 }
 
+if "changelogs" in exclude_patterns:
+    # temporary placeholder for now
+    redirects["changelogs/"] = (
+        "/general/contribution/github_contribution_practices.html"
+    )
+
 myst_enable_extensions = ["linkify"]