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+---
+'@backstage/plugin-catalog-backend-module-github': minor
+---
+
+Added the ability for the GitHub discovery processor to validate that catalog files exist before emitting them.
+
+Users can now set the `validateLocationsExist` property to `true` in their GitHub discovery configuration to opt in to this feature.
+This feature only works with `catalogPath`s that do not contain wildcards.
+
+When `validateLocationsExist` is set to `true`, the GitHub discovery processor will retrieve the object from the
+repository at the provided `catalogPath`.
+If this file exists and is non-empty, then it will be emitted as a location for further processing.
+If this file does not exist or is empty, then it will not be emitted.
+Not emitting locations that do not exist allows for far fewer calls to the GitHub API to validate locations that do not exist.