CI workflow (cobrateam/splinter)

The CI workflow from cobrateam/splinter, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

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Source: cobrateam/splinter.github/workflows/main.ymlLicense BSD-3-ClauseView source

What it does

This is the CI workflow from the cobrateam/splinter repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its BSD-3-Clause license.

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

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

# This is a basic workflow to help you get started with Actions

name: CI

# Controls when the action will run.
on:
  # Triggers the workflow on push or pull request events but only for the master branch
  push:
    branches: [master]
  pull_request:
    branches: [master]

  # Allows you to run this workflow manually from the Actions tab
  workflow_dispatch:


# A workflow run is made up of one or more jobs that can run sequentially or in parallel
jobs:
  tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - PY_VER: py38
            python-version: 3.8
          - PY_VER: py39
            python-version: 3.9
          - PY_VER: py310
            python-version: "3.10"
          - PY_VER: py311
            python-version: 3.11
          - PY_VER: py312
            python-version: 3.12
    steps:
      # Checks-out your repository under $GITHUB_WORKSPACE, so your job can access it
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: ${{matrix.python-version}}

      - name: Install test dependencies
        run: pip install tox

      - name: Run splinter tests
        run: |
          tox -e tests_splinter -- -n 4

      - name: Run lxml-based driver tests
        run: |
          tox -e tests_django -- -n 2;
          tox -e tests_flask -- -n 2;
          tox -e tests_zopetestbrowser -- -n 2;

  tests_selenium_remote:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - PY_VER: py38
            python-version: 3.8
          - PY_VER: py39
            python-version: 3.9
          - PY_VER: py310
            python-version: "3.10"
          - PY_VER: py311
            python-version: "3.11"
          - PY_VER: py312
            python-version: "3.12"

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: ${{matrix.python-version}}

      - name: Install test dependencies
        run: pip install tox

      - name: Set env
        run: echo "DISPLAY=:99.0" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Install selenium server
        run: |
          wget https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/releases/download/selenium-4.3.0/selenium-server-4.3.0.jar -O selenium-server.jar

      - name: Run Selenium Remote tests
        run: |
          echo "Start Selenium Server"
          xvfb-run java -jar selenium-server.jar standalone > selenium-server.log 2>&1 &
          timeout 60 bash -c 'while ! wget -O /dev/null -T 1 http://localhost:4444/readyz; do echo waiting for selenium server; sleep 1; done' || (cat selenium-server.log && exit 2)
          echo "Selenium server is ready, running tests"
          tox -e tests_selenium_remote_firefox
          tox -e tests_selenium_remote_chrome

  tests_selenium:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - PY_VER: py38
            python-version: 3.8
          - PY_VER: py39
            python-version: 3.9
          - PY_VER: py310
            python-version: "3.10"
          - PY_VER: py311
            python-version: "3.11"
          - PY_VER: py312
            python-version: "3.12"

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: ${{matrix.python-version}}

      - name: Install test dependencies
        run: pip install tox

      - name: Run Selenium tests
        run: |
          tox -e tests_selenium_firefox -- -n 4;
          tox -e tests_selenium_chrome -- -n 4;

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 is a basic workflow to help you get started with Actions
 
name: CI
 
# Controls when the action will run.
on:
  # Triggers the workflow on push or pull request events but only for the master branch
  push:
    branches: [master]
  pull_request:
    branches: [master]
 
  # Allows you to run this workflow manually from the Actions tab
  workflow_dispatch:
 
 
# A workflow run is made up of one or more jobs that can run sequentially or in parallel
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  tests:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - PY_VER: py38
            python-version: 3.8
          - PY_VER: py39
            python-version: 3.9
          - PY_VER: py310
            python-version: "3.10"
          - PY_VER: py311
            python-version: 3.11
          - PY_VER: py312
            python-version: 3.12
    steps:
      # Checks-out your repository under $GITHUB_WORKSPACE, so your job can access it
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: ${{matrix.python-version}}
 
      - name: Install test dependencies
        run: pip install tox
 
      - name: Run splinter tests
        run: |
          tox -e tests_splinter -- -n 4
 
      - name: Run lxml-based driver tests
        run: |
          tox -e tests_django -- -n 2;
          tox -e tests_flask -- -n 2;
          tox -e tests_zopetestbrowser -- -n 2;
 
  tests_selenium_remote:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - PY_VER: py38
            python-version: 3.8
          - PY_VER: py39
            python-version: 3.9
          - PY_VER: py310
            python-version: "3.10"
          - PY_VER: py311
            python-version: "3.11"
          - PY_VER: py312
            python-version: "3.12"
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: ${{matrix.python-version}}
 
      - name: Install test dependencies
        run: pip install tox
 
      - name: Set env
        run: echo "DISPLAY=:99.0" >> $GITHUB_ENV
 
      - name: Install selenium server
        run: |
          wget https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/releases/download/selenium-4.3.0/selenium-server-4.3.0.jar -O selenium-server.jar
 
      - name: Run Selenium Remote tests
        run: |
          echo "Start Selenium Server"
          xvfb-run java -jar selenium-server.jar standalone > selenium-server.log 2>&1 &
          timeout 60 bash -c 'while ! wget -O /dev/null -T 1 http://localhost:4444/readyz; do echo waiting for selenium server; sleep 1; done' || (cat selenium-server.log && exit 2)
          echo "Selenium server is ready, running tests"
          tox -e tests_selenium_remote_firefox
          tox -e tests_selenium_remote_chrome
 
  tests_selenium:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - PY_VER: py38
            python-version: 3.8
          - PY_VER: py39
            python-version: 3.9
          - PY_VER: py310
            python-version: "3.10"
          - PY_VER: py311
            python-version: "3.11"
          - PY_VER: py312
            python-version: "3.12"
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: ${{matrix.python-version}}
 
      - name: Install test dependencies
        run: pip install tox
 
      - name: Run Selenium tests
        run: |
          tox -e tests_selenium_firefox -- -n 4;
          tox -e tests_selenium_chrome -- -n 4;

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
End-to-end and browser tests
Network fetches

This workflow runs 3 jobs 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-python