Mark stale issues and pull requests workflow (DevExpress/testcafe)

The Mark stale issues and pull requests workflow from DevExpress/testcafe, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: B - good

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Source: DevExpress/testcafe.github/workflows/handle-stale.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Mark stale issues and pull requests workflow from the DevExpress/testcafe 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: "Mark stale issues and pull requests"
on:
  schedule:
  - cron: "30 1 * * *"
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  stale:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/stale@v3
      with:
        stale-issue-message: "This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had any activity for a long period. It will be closed and archived if no further activity occurs. However, we may return to this issue in the future. If it still affects you or you have any additional information regarding it, please leave a comment and we will keep it open."
        stale-pr-message: "This pull request has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had any activity for a long period. It will be closed and archived if no further activity occurs. However, we may return to this pull request in the future. If it is still relevant or you have any additional information regarding it, please leave a comment and we will keep it open."
        close-issue-message: "We're closing this issue after a prolonged period of inactivity. If it still affects you, please add a comment to this issue with up-to-date information. Thank you."
        close-pr-message: "We're closing this pull request after a prolonged period of inactivity. If it is still relevant, please ask for this pull request to be reopened. Thank you."
        stale-issue-label: "STATE: Stale"
        stale-pr-label: "STATE: Stale"
        days-before-stale: 180
        days-before-close: 10
        exempt-issue-labels: "AREA: docs,FREQUENCY: critical,FREQUENCY: level 2,HELP WANTED,!IMPORTANT!,STATE: Need clarification,STATE: Need response,STATE: won't fix,support center"
        exempt-pr-labels: "AREA: docs,FREQUENCY: critical,FREQUENCY: level 2,HELP WANTED,!IMPORTANT!,STATE: Need clarification,STATE: Need response,STATE: won't fix,support center"
  
  keepalive-job:
    name: Keepalive Workflow
    if: ${{ always() }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: gautamkrishnar/keepalive-workflow@v2
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ secrets.ACTIVE_TOKEN }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: "Mark stale issues and pull requests"
on:
  schedule:
  - cron: "30 1 * * *"
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  stale:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
    - uses: actions/stale@v3
      with:
        stale-issue-message: "This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had any activity for a long period. It will be closed and archived if no further activity occurs. However, we may return to this issue in the future. If it still affects you or you have any additional information regarding it, please leave a comment and we will keep it open."
        stale-pr-message: "This pull request has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had any activity for a long period. It will be closed and archived if no further activity occurs. However, we may return to this pull request in the future. If it is still relevant or you have any additional information regarding it, please leave a comment and we will keep it open."
        close-issue-message: "We're closing this issue after a prolonged period of inactivity. If it still affects you, please add a comment to this issue with up-to-date information. Thank you."
        close-pr-message: "We're closing this pull request after a prolonged period of inactivity. If it is still relevant, please ask for this pull request to be reopened. Thank you."
        stale-issue-label: "STATE: Stale"
        stale-pr-label: "STATE: Stale"
        days-before-stale: 180
        days-before-close: 10
        exempt-issue-labels: "AREA: docs,FREQUENCY: critical,FREQUENCY: level 2,HELP WANTED,!IMPORTANT!,STATE: Need clarification,STATE: Need response,STATE: won't fix,support center"
        exempt-pr-labels: "AREA: docs,FREQUENCY: critical,FREQUENCY: level 2,HELP WANTED,!IMPORTANT!,STATE: Need clarification,STATE: Need response,STATE: won't fix,support center"
  
  keepalive-job:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Keepalive Workflow
    if: ${{ always() }}
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: gautamkrishnar/keepalive-workflow@v2
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ secrets.ACTIVE_TOKEN }}

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.
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.

This workflow runs 2 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/stale actions/checkout