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E2E tests workflow (babel/babel)

The E2E tests workflow from babel/babel, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

Source: babel/babel.github/workflows/e2e-tests.ymlLicense MITView source
C
CI health grade
69/100
Health score
2
Jobs per trigger
3
Fixes in the optimized version

In short

  1. CI health: C (fair)
  2. The optimized version below points runs-on at Latchkey managed runners and adds caching and job timeouts.

What it does

This is the E2E tests workflow from the babel/babel 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: E2E tests

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:

permissions:
  contents: read

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  e2e-publish:
    name: Publish to local Verdaccio registry
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Use Node.js latest
        uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: latest
          cache: "yarn"
      - name: Publish
        run: ./scripts/integration-tests/publish-local.sh
      - name: Pack published packages
        working-directory: /tmp
        run: tar -cvf verdaccio-workspace.tar verdaccio-workspace
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7
        with:
          name: verdaccio-workspace
          path: /tmp/verdaccio-workspace.tar
          retention-days: 1

  e2e-tests:
    name: Test
    needs: e2e-publish
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        project:
          - babel
          - create-react-app
          # - vue-cli
          # - react-native
          - angular-cli
          # - nextjs-10
          - prettier
          # - jest
          # - ember # TODO: https://github.com/ember-cli/babel-remove-types/pull/9
    steps:
      - name: Get yarn1 cache directory path
        id: yarn1-cache-dir-path
        run: echo "dir=$(yarn cache dir)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
      # Pin node to 22 for create-react-app project.
      # The create-react-app e2e breaking test throws
      # http fetch GET https://localhost:4873/zwitch/-/zwitch-1.0.5.tgz attempt 3 failed with ERR_SSL_WRONG_VERSION_NUMBER
      # when installing on Node.js 24. It might be an npm issue.
      - name: Use Node.js ${{ matrix.project == 'create-react-app' && '22' || 'latest' }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.project == 'create-react-app' && '22' || 'latest' }}
      - name: Get yarn cache directory path
        id: yarn-cache-dir-path
        run: echo "dir=$(yarn config get cacheFolder)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
      - name: Use yarn1 cache
        uses: actions/cache@v5
        id: yarn1-cache # use this to check for `cache-hit` (`steps.yarn-cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'`)
        with:
          path: ${{ steps.yarn1-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn1-e2e-${{ matrix.project }}-${{ hashFiles('**/yarn.lock') }}
          restore-keys: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn1-e2e-${{ matrix.project }}-
      - name: Use yarn cache
        uses: actions/cache@v5
        id: yarn-cache # use this to check for `cache-hit` (`steps.yarn-cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'`)
        with:
          path: ${{ steps.yarn-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn-e2e-${{ matrix.project }}-${{ hashFiles('**/yarn.lock') }}
          restore-keys: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn-e2e-${{ matrix.project }}-
      - name: Clean babel cache
        run: |
          rm -rf ${{ steps.yarn1-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}/*babel*
          rm -rf ${{ steps.yarn-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}/*babel*
      - uses: actions/download-artifact@v8
        with:
          name: verdaccio-workspace
          path: /tmp
      - name: Unpack published packages
        run: tar -C /tmp -xf /tmp/verdaccio-workspace.tar
      - name: Test
        run: ./scripts/integration-tests/e2e-${{ matrix.project }}.sh

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.

workflow (.yml), optimized
name: E2E tests

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:

permissions:
  contents: read

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  e2e-publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Publish to local Verdaccio registry
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Use Node.js latest
        uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: latest
          cache: "yarn"
      - name: Publish
        run: ./scripts/integration-tests/publish-local.sh
      - name: Pack published packages
        working-directory: /tmp
        run: tar -cvf verdaccio-workspace.tar verdaccio-workspace
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7
        with:
          name: verdaccio-workspace
          path: /tmp/verdaccio-workspace.tar
          retention-days: 1

  e2e-tests:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Test
    needs: e2e-publish
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        project:
          - babel
          - create-react-app
          # - vue-cli
          # - react-native
          - angular-cli
          # - nextjs-10
          - prettier
          # - jest
          # - ember # TODO: https://github.com/ember-cli/babel-remove-types/pull/9
    steps:
      - name: Get yarn1 cache directory path
        id: yarn1-cache-dir-path
        run: echo "dir=$(yarn cache dir)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
      # Pin node to 22 for create-react-app project.
      # The create-react-app e2e breaking test throws
      # http fetch GET https://localhost:4873/zwitch/-/zwitch-1.0.5.tgz attempt 3 failed with ERR_SSL_WRONG_VERSION_NUMBER
      # when installing on Node.js 24. It might be an npm issue.
      - name: Use Node.js ${{ matrix.project == 'create-react-app' && '22' || 'latest' }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: ${{ matrix.project == 'create-react-app' && '22' || 'latest' }}
      - name: Get yarn cache directory path
        id: yarn-cache-dir-path
        run: echo "dir=$(yarn config get cacheFolder)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
      - name: Use yarn1 cache
        uses: actions/cache@v5
        id: yarn1-cache # use this to check for `cache-hit` (`steps.yarn-cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'`)
        with:
          path: ${{ steps.yarn1-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn1-e2e-${{ matrix.project }}-${{ hashFiles('**/yarn.lock') }}
          restore-keys: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn1-e2e-${{ matrix.project }}-
      - name: Use yarn cache
        uses: actions/cache@v5
        id: yarn-cache # use this to check for `cache-hit` (`steps.yarn-cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'`)
        with:
          path: ${{ steps.yarn-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn-e2e-${{ matrix.project }}-${{ hashFiles('**/yarn.lock') }}
          restore-keys: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn-e2e-${{ matrix.project }}-
      - name: Clean babel cache
        run: |
          rm -rf ${{ steps.yarn1-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}/*babel*
          rm -rf ${{ steps.yarn-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}/*babel*
      - uses: actions/download-artifact@v8
        with:
          name: verdaccio-workspace
          path: /tmp
      - name: Unpack published packages
        run: tar -C /tmp -xf /tmp/verdaccio-workspace.tar
      - name: Test
        run: ./scripts/integration-tests/e2e-${{ matrix.project }}.sh

What changed

  1. Run on Latchkey managed runners with one line (runs-on), which apply the fixes below automatically and self-heal transient failures. Each Linux x64 job moves to the Latchkey size matching its vCPU count, latchkey-small for a standard 2 vCPU runner; macOS, Windows and arm64 jobs stay as written.
  2. Cache dependency installs on the setup step so they are served from cache.
  3. 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:

  • End-to-end and browser tests

This workflow runs 2 jobs (5 with the matrix expanded) per trigger. All of them run on a standard GitHub-hosted Linux x64 runner, which in a private repository bills $0.006 a minute against $0.0025 on latchkey-small, 58% lower; in a public repository like this one they are free. Estimate the monthly difference with your own run counts.

Actions used in this workflow

  • actions/checkout
  • actions/setup-node
  • actions/upload-artifact
  • actions/cache
  • actions/download-artifact

Frequently asked questions

What does the E2E tests workflow (babel/babel) workflow do?
This is the E2E tests workflow from the babel/babel repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its MIT license.
What CI health grade does this workflow get?
This Node.js workflow grades C. Paste your own workflow into the Latchkey grader to see its grade and the exact fixes.
How can I improve this Node.js workflow?
Add caching and job timeouts. Latchkey applies these automatically on managed runners when you point runs-on at Latchkey.

References