diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish_docs.yml b/.github/workflows/publish_docs.yml
index c334ec326..54da0116d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish_docs.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish_docs.yml
@@ -1,57 +1,37 @@
 name: Publish docs to pages
 run-name: ${{ github.actor }} is publishing docs
 on:
-    # on a successful push
+    workflow_dispatch:  # Allow manual triggering
     push:
-        # only run on pushes to these branches
-        branches:
-            - 'master'
-            - 'main'
-            - 'docs'
-        # or run if pushes to these files.
-        # paths:
-        #    - 'docs/**.md'
-    check_run:
-        types:
-            # Only run if we have a successfully completed branch
-            - completed
-    # if desired, we can also use cron like rules to trigger these
-    # schedule:
-        #   - cron: 0 0 * * *
-    # Allow for manual triggering
-    workflow_dispatch:
+        branches: [master,main]
+        # paths: ['docs/**.md']  # API docs need building always
 
-# Sets permissions of the GITHUB_TOKEN to allow deployment to GitHub Pages
-permissions:
-    contents: read
-    pages: write
-    id-token: write
-
-# Allow only one concurrent deployment. Cancel any in-progress.
 concurrency:
-    group: "pages"
-    cancel-in-progress: true
+    group: github-pages
+    cancel-in-progress: false  # Skip any intermediate builds but finish deploying
 
 jobs:
     build:
         runs-on: ubuntu-latest
         env:
-            MDBOOK_ENV: 0.4.24
-            MERMAID_ENV: 0.12.6
+            MDBOOK_ENV: 0.4.40
+            MERMAID_ENV: 0.13.0
             DEST_DIR: /home/runner/.cargo/bin
         steps:
-            # these are other job descriptions to call.
-            - uses: actions/checkout@v3
-            - name: Configure rust  # TODO: can we export building rust and installing mdbook as an artifact and reuse it?
-              run: |
-                curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf -y | sh
-                rustup update
-                export PATH=$PATH:$DEST_DIR
+            - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+            - uses: actions/cache@v4
+              with:
+                path: |
+                  ~/.cargo/bin/
+                  ~/.cargo/registry/
+                  ~/.cargo/git/
+                  target/
+                key: ${{ runner.os }}-cargo-${{ hashFiles('**/Cargo.lock') }}
             - name: Install mdBook
               run: |
+                export PATH=$PATH:$DEST_DIR
                 curl -sSL "https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook/releases/download/v$MDBOOK_ENV/mdbook-v$MDBOOK_ENV-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz" | tar -xz --directory $DEST_DIR
                 curl -sSL "https://github.com/badboy/mdBook-mermaid/releases/download/v$MERMAID_ENV/mdbook-mermaid-v$MERMAID_ENV-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz" | tar -xz --directory $DEST_DIR
-            # actually build the book
             - name: Build the main book
               run: cd docs && mdbook build
             - name: Build API docs
@@ -60,11 +40,10 @@ jobs:
             - name: Copy cargo docs to API dir
               run: mkdir -p docs/output/api && cp -r target/doc/* docs/output/api
             - name: Upload artifact
-              uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v1
+              uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
               with:
                 path: ./docs/output
 
-    # write the pages
     deploy:
         needs: build
         permissions:
@@ -75,6 +54,6 @@ jobs:
             url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
         runs-on: ubuntu-latest
         steps:
-            - name: Deploy to Github Pages
+            - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
               id: depolyment
-              uses: actions/deploy-pages@v2
+              uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4