Release workflow (americanexpress/jest-image-snapshot)

The Release workflow from americanexpress/jest-image-snapshot, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Release workflow from the americanexpress/jest-image-snapshot 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: Release

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  prepare:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: "! contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
    steps:
      - run: echo "${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}"
  release:
    needs: prepare
    name: Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      id-token: write  # Required for trusted publisher publishing
      contents: write # to be able to publish a GitHub release
      issues: write # to be able to comment on released issues
      pull-requests: write # to be able to comment on released pull requests
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          persist-credentials: false
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          node-version: 24
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      - name: Release
        env:
          GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL: ${{ secrets.GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL }}
          GIT_AUTHOR_NAME: ${{ secrets.GIT_AUTHOR_NAME }}
          GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL: ${{ secrets.GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL }}
          GIT_COMMITTER_NAME: ${{ secrets.GIT_COMMITTER_NAME }}
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PA_TOKEN }}
        run: npx semantic-release

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:
    branches:
      - main
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  prepare:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    if: "! contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
    steps:
      - run: echo "${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}"
  release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    needs: prepare
    name: Release
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      id-token: write  # Required for trusted publisher publishing
      contents: write # to be able to publish a GitHub release
      issues: write # to be able to comment on released issues
      pull-requests: write # to be able to comment on released pull requests
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          persist-credentials: false
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 24
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      - name: Release
        env:
          GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL: ${{ secrets.GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL }}
          GIT_AUTHOR_NAME: ${{ secrets.GIT_AUTHOR_NAME }}
          GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL: ${{ secrets.GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL }}
          GIT_COMMITTER_NAME: ${{ secrets.GIT_COMMITTER_NAME }}
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PA_TOKEN }}
        run: npx semantic-release
 

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.

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:

• Dependency installs

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