website workflow (bojand/ghz)

The website workflow from bojand/ghz, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

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Source: bojand/ghz.github/workflows/website.yamlLicense Apache-2.0View source

What it does

This is the website workflow from the bojand/ghz 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: website

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master
    paths:
    - 'www/docs/*.md'
    - 'www/docs/web/*.md'
    - 'www/website/*'

jobs:
  build:
    env:
      WWW_TARGET_BRANCH: gh-pages
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Check out code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Use Node.js 18
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: 18.x
      - name: Build webpage
        run: |
          npm ci
          npm run build
        working-directory: ./www/website
      - name: Copy data
        run: |
          mkdir -p ${{env.HOME}}/tmp/www/build
          cp -r ./www/website/build/ghz/. ${{env.HOME}}/tmp/www/build
      - name: Check out target branch
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          ref: ${{ env.WWW_TARGET_BRANCH }}
      - name: Copy new data
        run: |
          cp -r ${{env.HOME}}/tmp/www/build/. .
      - name: Commit to repository
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAGES_ACTION_TOKEN }}
          COMMIT_MSG: Update website
        run: |
          git config user.email "dbojan@gmail.com"
          git config user.name "Bojan"
          # Update origin with token
          git remote set-url origin https://x-access-token:${GITHUB_TOKEN}@github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}.git
          # Add changed files
          git add .
          # Only commit and push if we have changes
          git diff --quiet && git diff --staged --quiet || (git commit -m "${COMMIT_MSG}"; git push origin ${WWW_TARGET_BRANCH})

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: website
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master
    paths:
    - 'www/docs/*.md'
    - 'www/docs/web/*.md'
    - 'www/website/*'
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    env:
      WWW_TARGET_BRANCH: gh-pages
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: Check out code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Use Node.js 18
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 18.x
      - name: Build webpage
        run: |
          npm ci
          npm run build
        working-directory: ./www/website
      - name: Copy data
        run: |
          mkdir -p ${{env.HOME}}/tmp/www/build
          cp -r ./www/website/build/ghz/. ${{env.HOME}}/tmp/www/build
      - name: Check out target branch
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          ref: ${{ env.WWW_TARGET_BRANCH }}
      - name: Copy new data
        run: |
          cp -r ${{env.HOME}}/tmp/www/build/. .
      - name: Commit to repository
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAGES_ACTION_TOKEN }}
          COMMIT_MSG: Update website
        run: |
          git config user.email "dbojan@gmail.com"
          git config user.name "Bojan"
          # Update origin with token
          git remote set-url origin https://x-access-token:${GITHUB_TOKEN}@github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}.git
          # Add changed files
          git add .
          # Only commit and push if we have changes
          git diff --quiet && git diff --staged --quiet || (git commit -m "${COMMIT_MSG}"; git push origin ${WWW_TARGET_BRANCH})

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