From 53a9d772e5ab4c9ff17a4a58ef8f380e509701a3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dan Birman <danbirman@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2026 20:56:49 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix: prevent unnecessary schema bumps

---
 .../utils/schema_version_bump.py              | 24 ++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/aind_data_schema/utils/schema_version_bump.py b/src/aind_data_schema/utils/schema_version_bump.py
index bfc0e5e59..914fbdabb 100644
--- a/src/aind_data_schema/utils/schema_version_bump.py
+++ b/src/aind_data_schema/utils/schema_version_bump.py
@@ -72,13 +72,35 @@ def _get_list_of_models_that_changed(self) -> List[DataCoreModel]:
             core_model_json = core_model.model_json_schema()
             original_schema = self._get_schema_json(core_model)
 
-            diff_list = list(dictdiffer.diff(original_schema, core_model_json))
+            diff_list = [d for d in dictdiffer.diff(original_schema, core_model_json) if not self._is_schema_version_diff(d)]
 
             if len(diff_list) > 0:
                 schemas_that_need_updating.append(core_model)
 
         return schemas_that_need_updating
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _is_schema_version_diff(diff) -> bool:
+        """
+        Determine whether a dictdiffer diff entry only concerns the
+        schema_version field, which should not by itself trigger a bump.
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        diff : tuple
+          A single diff entry produced by dictdiffer.diff
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        bool
+          True if the diff refers to the top-level schema_version const/default
+        """
+        _, path, _ = diff
+        if isinstance(path, str):
+            path_parts = path.split(".")
+        else:
+            path_parts = [str(part) for part in path]
+        return path_parts[:2] == ["properties", "schema_version"]
+
     def _get_incremented_versions_map(self, models_that_changed: List[DataCoreModel]) -> Dict[DataCoreModel, str]:
         """