diff --git a/.github/workflows/on_push_deploy_to_staging.yaml b/.github/workflows/on_push_deploy_to_staging.yaml
index 876b5cab1..20496f2d9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/on_push_deploy_to_staging.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/on_push_deploy_to_staging.yaml
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build and tag Docker image
         run: |
           # Build the Docker image
-          docker build -t ${{ secrets.STAGING_ECR_URI }}:$IMAGE_TAG .
+          docker build --no-cache -t ${{ secrets.STAGING_ECR_URI }}:$IMAGE_TAG .
 
           # Tag the image as 'latest'
           docker tag ${{ secrets.STAGING_ECR_URI }}:$IMAGE_TAG ${{ secrets.STAGING_ECR_URI }}:latest
diff --git a/basic_auth_middleware.py b/basic_auth_middleware.py
index 505f0edee..d7d570ef2 100644
--- a/basic_auth_middleware.py
+++ b/basic_auth_middleware.py
@@ -12,6 +12,11 @@ class BasicAuthMiddleware(BaseHTTPMiddleware):
         self.password = password
 
     async def dispatch(self, request, call_next):
+
+        # Allow unauthenticated access to the `/sdapi/v1/status` endpoint
+        if request.url.path == "/sdapi/v1/status":
+            return await call_next(request)
+        
         # Extract the Authorization header
         auth_header = request.headers.get("Authorization") or request.headers.get("authorization")
         if not auth_header or not auth_header.startswith("Basic "):