Can I skip running builds for the main branch to save snapshots?
In many cases (such as GitHub with the Chromatic app or Bitbucket), baseline history will still be preserved through merges if you skip builds on the main branch. However, skipping builds on main comes with trade-offs that may affect the reliability of your visual testing workflow.
Running UI Tests on main helps maintain a consistent and traceable visual baseline for your production-ready UI. It ensures that future branches have a clean baseline ancestor, reducing false positives and reapprovals. It also gives your team a reliable audit trail of accepted visual changes and helps catch regressions that only appear after merging multiple changes.
If you skip builds on main, you risk breaking baseline continuity, especially in cases where pull requests are merged without Chromatic builds, or when using GitLab, unlinked projects, or GitHub without the Chromatic app. In these situations, Chromatic may be unable to connect your branch’s visual history correctly, leading to all stories showing as new or missing diffs.
The TL;DR: you can skip main builds in some cases, but doing so may lead to broken baselines, noisy test results, and reduced visibility. Most teams benefit from keeping Chromatic enabled on main, especially when using features like --auto-accept-changes or when maintaining a strong audit trail is important.