Release workflow (ai/nanoid)

The Release workflow from ai/nanoid, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

Point runs-on at Latchkey and get caching, run de-duplication, job timeouts, self-healing for flaky steps, and up to 58% lower cost, applied automatically.

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Source: ai/nanoid.github/workflows/release.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Release workflow from the ai/nanoid repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its MIT license.

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

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

name: Release
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'
jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout the repository
        uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
      - name: Clean npm package
        uses: ai/clean-npm-project@0e1fd6e68c39b972235226864d47e368c550ebed # v0.2.3
        with:
          clean-docs: true
          clean-comments: true
      - name: Install Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@48b55a011bda9f5d6aeb4c2d9c7362e8dae4041e # v6.4.0
        with:
          node-version: 26
      - name: Publish npm package
        run: npm stage publish
        working-directory: cleaned-project/
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout the repository
        uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
      - name: Clean npm package
        uses: ai/copy-changelog-to-release@a6dc825c34575add2da2060796794f7b84894628 # v0.2.0
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Estimated ~20% faster on cache hits, plus fewer wasted runs and a safer supply chain. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

name: Release
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: read
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout the repository
        uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
      - name: Clean npm package
        uses: ai/clean-npm-project@0e1fd6e68c39b972235226864d47e368c550ebed # v0.2.3
        with:
          clean-docs: true
          clean-comments: true
      - name: Install Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@48b55a011bda9f5d6aeb4c2d9c7362e8dae4041e # v6.4.0
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 26
      - name: Publish npm package
        run: npm stage publish
        working-directory: cleaned-project/
  release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout the repository
        uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
      - name: Clean npm package
        uses: ai/copy-changelog-to-release@a6dc825c34575add2da2060796794f7b84894628 # v0.2.0
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

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.
Cache dependency installs on the setup step so they are served from cache.
Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

This workflow runs 2 jobs per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow

actions/checkout actions/setup-node