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CI workflow (caolan/async)

The CI workflow from caolan/async, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

C

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: caolan/async.github/workflows/ci.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the CI workflow from the caolan/async 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: CI

on:
  push:
    branches-ignore:
      - "dependabot/**"
  pull_request:

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        node:
          - 20
    steps:
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v5

      - name: ⎔ Setup node ${{ matrix.node }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v5
        with:
          cache: npm

      - name: 📥 Download deps
        run: npm ci

      - name: 🧪 Run lint
        run: npm run lint

  build:
    permissions:
      actions: write  # for styfle/cancel-workflow-action to cancel/stop running workflows
      checks: write  # for coverallsapp/github-action to create new checks
      contents: read  # for actions/checkout to fetch code
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    needs: lint
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        node:
          - 18
          - 20
          - 21
        os: [ubuntu-latest]
        browser:
          - FirefoxHeadless
        include:
          - os: windows-latest
            node: 20
            browser: FirefoxHeadless

    steps:
      - name: 🛑 Cancel Previous Runs
        uses: styfle/cancel-workflow-action@0.12.1
        with:
          access_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: ⬇️ Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v5

      - name: ⎔ Setup node ${{ matrix.node }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v5
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}
          cache: npm

      - name: 📥 Download deps
        run: npm ci

      - name: Run coverage
        run: npm test

      - name: Run browser tests
        if: matrix.node == 20
        run: npm run mocha-browser-test -- --browsers ${{ matrix.browser }}  --timeout 10000
        env:
          DISPLAY: :99.0

      - name: Coverage
        if: matrix.os == 'ubuntu-latest' && matrix.node == '20'
        run: npm run coverage && npx nyc report --reporter=lcov

      - name: Coveralls
        if: matrix.os == 'ubuntu-latest' && matrix.node == '20'
        uses: coverallsapp/github-action@v2.3.6
        with:
            github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: CI
 
on:
  push:
    branches-ignore:
      - "dependabot/**"
  pull_request:
 
permissions:
  contents: read
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  lint:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    strategy:
      matrix:
        node:
          - 20
    steps:
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v5
 
      - name: ⎔ Setup node ${{ matrix.node }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v5
        with:
          cache: npm
 
      - name: 📥 Download deps
        run: npm ci
 
      - name: 🧪 Run lint
        run: npm run lint
 
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    permissions:
      actions: write  # for styfle/cancel-workflow-action to cancel/stop running workflows
      checks: write  # for coverallsapp/github-action to create new checks
      contents: read  # for actions/checkout to fetch code
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    needs: lint
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        node:
          - 18
          - 20
          - 21
        os: [ubuntu-latest]
        browser:
          - FirefoxHeadless
        include:
          - os: windows-latest
            node: 20
            browser: FirefoxHeadless
 
    steps:
      - name: 🛑 Cancel Previous Runs
        uses: styfle/cancel-workflow-action@0.12.1
        with:
          access_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v5
 
      - name: ⎔ Setup node ${{ matrix.node }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v5
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}
          cache: npm
 
      - name: 📥 Download deps
        run: npm ci
 
      - name: Run coverage
        run: npm test
 
      - name: Run browser tests
        if: matrix.node == 20
        run: npm run mocha-browser-test -- --browsers ${{ matrix.browser }}  --timeout 10000
        env:
          DISPLAY: :99.0
 
      - name: Coverage
        if: matrix.os == 'ubuntu-latest' && matrix.node == '20'
        run: npm run coverage && npx nyc report --reporter=lcov
 
      - name: Coveralls
        if: matrix.os == 'ubuntu-latest' && matrix.node == '20'
        uses: coverallsapp/github-action@v2.3.6
        with:
            github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

What changed

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:

This workflow runs 2 jobs (4 with the matrix expanded) 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