diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d27cd10..1aa33aa 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -73,3 +73,4 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - how sync handles pending invitations (now it does not ignore them)
 - removed references to other resources from for_each expressions
 - downgraded terraform to 1.2.9 to fix an import bug affecting for_each expressions
+- refactored pages build_type assignment to trim whitespace
diff --git a/terraform/locals.tf b/terraform/locals.tf
index fbf0079..c05d3aa 100644
--- a/terraform/locals.tf
+++ b/terraform/locals.tf
@@ -122,7 +122,13 @@ locals {
               for file, config in lookup(config, "files", {}) : merge(config, {
                 repository = repository
                 file       = file
-                content    = try(file("${path.module}/../files/${config.content}"), config.content)
+                content = (
+                  try(fileexists("${path.module}/../files/${config.content}"), false) &&
+                  try(startswith(
+                    abspath("${path.module}/../files/${config.content}"),
+                    "${abspath("${path.module}/../files")}/"
+                  ), false)
+                ) ? file("${path.module}/../files/${config.content}") : config.content
               })
             ]
           ]) : lower("${item.repository}/${item.file}") => item
diff --git a/terraform/resources.tf b/terraform/resources.tf
index 8ba0fde..73a03cb 100644
--- a/terraform/resources.tf
+++ b/terraform/resources.tf
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ resource "github_repository" "this" {
   dynamic "pages" {
     for_each = try(each.value.pages, [])
     content {
-      build_type = try(pages.value["build_type"], null)
+      build_type = trimspace(try(pages.value["build_type"], "")) != "" ? pages.value["build_type"] : null
       cname      = try(pages.value["cname"], null)
       dynamic "source" {
         for_each = pages.value["source"]