diff --git a/buildbot/master/master.cfg b/buildbot/master/master.cfg
index 68152a1..715c04c 100644
--- a/buildbot/master/master.cfg
+++ b/buildbot/master/master.cfg
@@ -64,6 +64,24 @@ c['change_source'].append(changes.GitPoller(
         workdir='gitpoller-workdir', branch='master',
         pollinterval=400))
 
+#
+
+def startCompile(change):
+    '''Determine whether we want to start a compile pass based on the files that
+        have changed.  Only skip compile if ALL changes are in the ignore criteria.
+    '''
+    compile = True
+    for fn in change.files:
+         # ignore all changes to gpg keys and markdown and text files
+         if fn.endswith('.asc') or fn.endswith('.md') or fn.endswith('.txt') or fn.endswith('.conf'):
+                compile = False
+         # don't ignore changes to CMakeLists.txt files
+         if re.match('CMakeLists.txt', fn):
+                compile = True
+         else:
+                return True
+    return compile
+
 ####### SCHEDULERS
 
 # Configure the Schedulers, which decide how to react to incoming changes.
@@ -89,6 +107,7 @@ c['schedulers'].append(schedulers.SingleBranchScheduler(
 
 c['schedulers'].append(schedulers.SingleBranchScheduler(
             name='kovri PR builder',
+            fileIsImportant=startCompile,
             builderNames=['kovri-all-win32','kovri-all-win64','kovri-all-freebsd64','kovri-all-osx-10.12','kovri-all-osx-10.10','kovri-all-osx-10.11','kovri-all-ubuntu-amd64','kovri-all-ubuntu-i686','kovri-all-ubuntu-arm7','kovri-all-debian-arm8'],
             change_filter=util.ChangeFilter(repository='https://github.com/monero-project/kovri.git')
             ))