diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index de9b02d2..711ead50 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@
 
 ## Upcoming
 
-* Update redirects.txt information text 
-* Prevent Vale from processing Markdown files in the build directory
+* Exclude utility directories from builds and checks
 * Update link to documentation in README
 
 ### Changed
 
-* `docs/Makefile` [#605](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-stack/pull/605)
+* `docs/conf.py` [#610](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-stack/pull/610)
+* `docs/Makefile` [#605](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-stack/pull/605), [#610](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-stack/pull/610)
 * `README.md` [#603](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-stack/pull/603)
 * `.github/workflows/cla-check.yml` [#606](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-stack/pull/606)
 
diff --git a/docs/Makefile b/docs/Makefile
index 3561e99f..d207fb9e 100644
--- a/docs/Makefile
+++ b/docs/Makefile
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ VALE_DIR         ?= $(DOCS_VENVDIR)/lib/python*/site-packages/vale
 VALE_CONFIG      ?= $(DEV_DIR)/vale.ini
 PA11Y_CMD        ?= $(DEV_DIR)/node_modules/pa11y/bin/pa11y.js --config $(DEV_DIR)/pa11y.json
 CONFIRM_SUDO     ?= N
-CHECK_PATH       ?= $(filter-out $(DOCS_VENVDIR) $(DOCS_BUILDDIR),$(wildcard *))
+CHECK_PATH       ?= $(filter-out $(DOCS_VENVDIR) $(DOCS_BUILDDIR) $(DEV_DIR),$(wildcard *))
 
 # Put it first so that "make" without argument is like "make help".
 help:
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index e7e11daa..926230f4 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -243,6 +243,7 @@
 exclude_patterns = [
     "doc-cheat-sheet*",
     ".venv*",
+    "_dev",
 ]
 
 # Adds custom CSS files, located remotely or in 'html_static_path'.