Release workflow (auth0/node-jsonwebtoken)

The Release workflow from auth0/node-jsonwebtoken, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

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Source: auth0/node-jsonwebtoken.github/workflows/release.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Release workflow from the auth0/node-jsonwebtoken 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:
    branches:
      - master

permissions:
  contents: write
  issues: write
  pull-requests: write
  id-token: write

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: startsWith(github.event.head_commit.message, 'chore(release):')

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd # v6.0.2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          persist-credentials: false

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@6044e13b5dc448c55e2357c09f80417699197238 # v6.2.0
        with:
          node-version: '24'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@a309ff8b426b58ec0e2a45f0f869d46889d02405 # v6.2.0
        with:
          python-version: "3.10"

      - name: Install Python dependencies
        shell: bash
        run: pip install boto3>=1.34.159 requests>=2.32.3 rl-deploy>=2.2.3.0 pip-system-certs>=4.0

      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@8df5847569e6427dd6c4fb1cf565c83acfa8afa7 # v6.0.0
        with:
          role-to-assume: ${{ secrets.PRODSEC_TOOLS_ARN }}
          aws-region: us-east-1
          mask-aws-account-id: true

      - name: Install rl-wrapper
        env:
          WRAPPER_INDEX_URL: "https://${{ secrets.PRODSEC_TOOLS_USER }}:${{ secrets.PRODSEC_TOOLS_TOKEN }}@a0us.jfrog.io/artifactory/api/pypi/python-local/simple"
        run: pip install "rl-wrapper>=1.0.0" --index-url $WRAPPER_INDEX_URL

      - name: Release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          NPM_CONFIG_PROVENANCE: true
          RLSECURE_LICENSE: ${{ secrets.RLSECURE_LICENSE }}
          RLSECURE_SITE_KEY: ${{ secrets.RLSECURE_SITE_KEY }}
          SIGNAL_HANDLER_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SIGNAL_HANDLER_TOKEN }}
          PYTHONUNBUFFERED: 1
        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:
      - master
 
permissions:
  contents: write
  issues: write
  pull-requests: write
  id-token: write
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    if: startsWith(github.event.head_commit.message, 'chore(release):')
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd # v6.0.2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          persist-credentials: false
 
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@6044e13b5dc448c55e2357c09f80417699197238 # v6.2.0
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: '24'
 
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install
 
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@a309ff8b426b58ec0e2a45f0f869d46889d02405 # v6.2.0
        with:
          python-version: "3.10"
 
      - name: Install Python dependencies
        shell: bash
        run: pip install boto3>=1.34.159 requests>=2.32.3 rl-deploy>=2.2.3.0 pip-system-certs>=4.0
 
      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@8df5847569e6427dd6c4fb1cf565c83acfa8afa7 # v6.0.0
        with:
          role-to-assume: ${{ secrets.PRODSEC_TOOLS_ARN }}
          aws-region: us-east-1
          mask-aws-account-id: true
 
      - name: Install rl-wrapper
        env:
          WRAPPER_INDEX_URL: "https://${{ secrets.PRODSEC_TOOLS_USER }}:${{ secrets.PRODSEC_TOOLS_TOKEN }}@a0us.jfrog.io/artifactory/api/pypi/python-local/simple"
        run: pip install "rl-wrapper>=1.0.0" --index-url $WRAPPER_INDEX_URL
 
      - name: Release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          NPM_CONFIG_PROVENANCE: true
          RLSECURE_LICENSE: ${{ secrets.RLSECURE_LICENSE }}
          RLSECURE_SITE_KEY: ${{ secrets.RLSECURE_SITE_KEY }}
          SIGNAL_HANDLER_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SIGNAL_HANDLER_TOKEN }}
          PYTHONUNBUFFERED: 1
        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 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 actions/setup-node actions/setup-python aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials