Docker workflow (alerta/alerta)

The Docker workflow from alerta/alerta, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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

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Source: alerta/alerta.github/workflows/docker.ymlLicense Apache-2.0View source

What it does

This is the Docker workflow from the alerta/alerta 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

workflow (.yml)

name: Docker

on:
  push:
    branches: [ master, release/* ]
    tags: [ '**' ]

env:
  SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
  BUILD_NUMBER: ${{ format('{0}-{1}-{2}', github.run_id, github.run_number, github.run_attempt) }}

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build & Push
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    env:
      REPOSITORY_URL: ghcr.io
      IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository_owner }}/alerta-api

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Build Image
        id: docker-build
        run: >-
          docker build
          --build-arg BUILD_DATE=$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
          --build-arg BUILD_NUMBER=$BUILD_NUMBER
          --build-arg RELEASE=$(cat VERSION)
          --build-arg VERSION=${{ github.sha }}
          -t $IMAGE_NAME
          -t $REPOSITORY_URL/$IMAGE_NAME:$(cat VERSION)
          -t $REPOSITORY_URL/$IMAGE_NAME:$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
          -t $REPOSITORY_URL/$IMAGE_NAME:latest .
      - name: Docker Login
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ${{ env.REPOSITORY_URL }}
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - name: Publish Image
        id: docker-push
        run: docker push --all-tags $REPOSITORY_URL/$IMAGE_NAME

      - uses: act10ns/slack@v2
        with:
          status: ${{ job.status }}
          steps: ${{ toJson(steps) }}
        if: failure()

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Docker
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [ master, release/* ]
    tags: [ '**' ]
 
env:
  SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
  BUILD_NUMBER: ${{ format('{0}-{1}-{2}', github.run_id, github.run_number, github.run_attempt) }}
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Build & Push
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    env:
      REPOSITORY_URL: ghcr.io
      IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository_owner }}/alerta-api
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Build Image
        id: docker-build
        run: >-
          docker build
          --build-arg BUILD_DATE=$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
          --build-arg BUILD_NUMBER=$BUILD_NUMBER
          --build-arg RELEASE=$(cat VERSION)
          --build-arg VERSION=${{ github.sha }}
          -t $IMAGE_NAME
          -t $REPOSITORY_URL/$IMAGE_NAME:$(cat VERSION)
          -t $REPOSITORY_URL/$IMAGE_NAME:$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
          -t $REPOSITORY_URL/$IMAGE_NAME:latest .
      - name: Docker Login
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ${{ env.REPOSITORY_URL }}
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - name: Publish Image
        id: docker-push
        run: docker push --all-tags $REPOSITORY_URL/$IMAGE_NAME
 
      - uses: act10ns/slack@v2
        with:
          status: ${{ job.status }}
          steps: ${{ toJson(steps) }}
        if: failure()

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.

2 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

actions/checkout docker/login-action