release-please workflow (conventional-changelog/standard-version)

The release-please workflow from conventional-changelog/standard-version, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the release-please workflow from the conventional-changelog/standard-version repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its ISC license.

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

The workflow

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
name: release-please
jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: GoogleCloudPlatform/release-please-action@v3
        id: release
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          release-type: node
          package-name: standard-version
      # The logic below handles the npm publication:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        # these if statements ensure that a publication only occurs when
        # a new release is created:
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v1
        with:
          node-version: 12
          registry-url: 'https://external-dot-oss-automation.appspot.com'
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
      - run: npm ci
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
      - run: npm publish
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{secrets.NPM_TOKEN}}
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}

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.

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
name: release-please
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  release-please:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: GoogleCloudPlatform/release-please-action@v3
        id: release
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          release-type: node
          package-name: standard-version
      # The logic below handles the npm publication:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        # these if statements ensure that a publication only occurs when
        # a new release is created:
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v1
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 12
          registry-url: 'https://external-dot-oss-automation.appspot.com'
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
      - run: npm ci
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
      - run: npm publish
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{secrets.NPM_TOKEN}}
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
 

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.

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