publish workflow (DietrichGebert/ponytail)

The publish workflow from DietrichGebert/ponytail, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the publish workflow from the DietrichGebert/ponytail 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

name: publish

on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '22'
      # Trusted publishing (OIDC) needs npm >= 11.5.1; Node 22 ships npm 10.
      - run: npm install -g npm@latest
      # No token: id-token: write above lets npm authenticate via OIDC, and
      # provenance is attached automatically. access set in publishConfig.
      - run: npm publish

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.

name: publish
 
on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']
  workflow_dispatch:
 
permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: '22'
      # Trusted publishing (OIDC) needs npm >= 11.5.1; Node 22 ships npm 10.
      - run: npm install -g npm@latest
      # No token: id-token: write above lets npm authenticate via OIDC, and
      # provenance is attached automatically. access set in publishConfig.
      - run: npm publish
 

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• Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.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

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