There is also a keyboard shortcut for this: Alt+Shift+Enter commits staged changes without triggering deploys, and it doesn't depend on the button label changing. We haven't confirmed that a deploy-free commit also holds back the first deployment of a brand-new service that already has a GitHub repo staged as its source, so we wouldn't count on it.

The safest path is to keep the service source-free until everything else is in place. If you apply a service with no repo or image connected, along with its settings and variables, no application deployment starts. Once that's applied, connect the repo. Deploy applies every staged change in the environment, not just the selected service, so check the full changeset first. If the repo is already part of your staged changes, applying them can start the app. Discard Changes would clear all 61 staged changes, not just the repo connection.

The Autodeploy Disable control is in the service's Settings next to the trigger branch, and it belongs to the GitHub connection itself, so it only shows up once the repo connection has been applied. If you need to push to main before you're ready to deploy, push before connecting the repo. Once it's connected, you can disable autodeploy and use Deploy Latest Commit from the Command Palette (Cmd+K) when you want the first deploy. More detail: Controlling GitHub Autodeploys.