In site_utils/deploy_server_local.py, there's logic for
"determine whether a given action needs to run based on
what directories changed."  There's a dictionary that maps
certain actions to the associated directories:

# A dict to map update_commands defined in config file to repos or files that
# decide whether need to update these commands. E.g. if no changes under
# frontend repo, no need to update afe.
COMMANDS_TO_REPOS_DICT = {'afe': 'frontend/',
                          'tko': 'tko/'}


That dict is wrong.  These are the commands associated with
the 'afe' and 'tko' actions:
[UPDATE_COMMANDS]
afe: AUTOTEST_REPO/utils/compile_gwt_clients.py -c autotest.AfeClient
tko: AUTOTEST_REPO/utils/compile_gwt_clients.py -c autotest.TkoClient

Those commands compile the java code under "frontend/client".  So
both commands should be declared as dependent either on "frontend/"
or "frontend/client/".