Test PR workflow (clientIO/joint)

The Test PR workflow from clientIO/joint, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

Point runs-on at Latchkey and get caching, job timeouts, SHA-pinned actions, self-healing for flaky steps, and up to 58% lower cost, applied automatically.

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Source: clientIO/joint.github/workflows/test-pr.ymlLicense MPL-2.0View source

What it does

This is the Test PR workflow from the clientIO/joint repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its MPL-2.0 license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

# This GitHub Actions workflow runs tests for the `joint` repository.
name: Test PR

# Trigger this workflow on:
on:
  push:
    branches: [ "master" ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "master" ]

# Cancel in-progress runs on new commits
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  # Job to run tests
  test:
    if: ${{ github.repository == 'clientIO/joint' }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      # Checkout contents of joint repo
      - name: Checkout joint
        id: checkout-joint
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      # Install environment packages
      # Fonts - util.breakText - international characters
      - name: Install environment packages
        id: install-environment-packages
        uses: awalsh128/cache-apt-pkgs-action@v1
        with:
          packages: |
            fonts-arphic-ukai \
            fonts-arphic-uming \
            fonts-ipafont-mincho \
            fonts-ipafont-gothic \
            fonts-unfonts-core \
            fonts-noto-core
          version: 1.0

      # Set up Node.js version for building
      - name: Setup Node.js v22
        id: setup-node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22.14.0

      # Cache Yarn packages to speed up CI
      - name: Cache Yarn
        id: cache-yarn
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: |
            .yarn/cache
          key: yarn-cache-${{ hashFiles('yarn.lock') }}

      # Install all dependencies from the joint repo
      - name: Install dependencies
        id: install-dependencies
        run: yarn install --immutable

      # Build the joint project
      - name: Prepare joint
        id: prepare-joint
        run: yarn run dist

      # Test the joint project
      - name: 'Test joint'
        id: test-joint
        run: yarn run test

      # Lint the joint project
      - name: 'Lint joint'
        id: lint-joint
        run: yarn run lint

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.

# This GitHub Actions workflow runs tests for the `joint` repository.
name: Test PR
 
# Trigger this workflow on:
on:
  push:
    branches: [ "master" ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "master" ]
 
# Cancel in-progress runs on new commits
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  # Job to run tests
  test:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    if: ${{ github.repository == 'clientIO/joint' }}
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      # Checkout contents of joint repo
      - name: Checkout joint
        id: checkout-joint
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
 
      # Install environment packages
      # Fonts - util.breakText - international characters
      - name: Install environment packages
        id: install-environment-packages
        uses: awalsh128/cache-apt-pkgs-action@v1
        with:
          packages: |
            fonts-arphic-ukai \
            fonts-arphic-uming \
            fonts-ipafont-mincho \
            fonts-ipafont-gothic \
            fonts-unfonts-core \
            fonts-noto-core
          version: 1.0
 
      # Set up Node.js version for building
      - name: Setup Node.js v22
        id: setup-node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 22.14.0
 
      # Cache Yarn packages to speed up CI
      - name: Cache Yarn
        id: cache-yarn
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: |
            .yarn/cache
          key: yarn-cache-${{ hashFiles('yarn.lock') }}
 
      # Install all dependencies from the joint repo
      - name: Install dependencies
        id: install-dependencies
        run: yarn install --immutable
 
      # Build the joint project
      - name: Prepare joint
        id: prepare-joint
        run: yarn run dist
 
      # Test the joint project
      - name: 'Test joint'
        id: test-joint
        run: yarn run test
 
      # Lint the joint project
      - name: 'Lint joint'
        id: lint-joint
        run: yarn run lint

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.
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.

1 third-party action is referenced by a movable tag. Pin it 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:

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/cache