Create and publish a Docker image workflow (addyosmani/critical)

The Create and publish a Docker image workflow from addyosmani/critical, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Create and publish a Docker image workflow from the addyosmani/critical repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its Apache-2.0 license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

name: Create and publish a Docker image

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

env:
  REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}

jobs:
  build-and-push-image:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v5
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Log in to the Container registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Extract metadata (tags, labels) for Docker
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
        with:
          images: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}

      - name: Build and push Docker image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v6
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Removes redundant runs and caps runaway jobs. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

name: Create and publish a Docker image
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
 
env:
  REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build-and-push-image:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v5
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
 
      - name: Log in to the Container registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 
      - name: Extract metadata (tags, labels) for Docker
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
        with:
          images: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}
 
      - name: Build and push Docker image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v6
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
 

What changed

• Run on Latchkey managed runners with one line (runs-on), which apply the fixes below automatically and self-heal transient failures. This example uses latchkey-small; pick the runner size that fits the job.
• Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.
• Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

3 third-party actions are referenced by a movable tag. Pin them to the commit SHA (Latchkey resolves and applies this automatically) so a repointed tag cannot change what runs.

What Latchkey heals here

This workflow has steps that commonly fail on transient issues (network, registries, flaky browsers). On Latchkey managed runners they are detected, retried, and self-healed instead of failing your build:

• Container pulls and builds

This workflow runs 1 job per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow