Publish workflow (django-commons/django-unicorn)

The Publish workflow from django-commons/django-unicorn, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: F - at risk

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Source: django-commons/django-unicorn.github/workflows/publish.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Publish workflow from the django-commons/django-unicorn 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: Publish

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "*.*.*"
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  pypi-publish:
    name: Upload release to PyPI
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    environment:
      name: pypi
      url: https://pypi.org/project/django-unicorn/

    permissions:
      id-token: write
      contents: write

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Install uv
        uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v3
        with:
          enable-cache: true

      - name: Set up Python
        run: uv python install 3.10

      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'

      - name: Sync JS Version
        run: |
          # Extract version from tag (e.g. v1.2.3 -> 1.2.3)
          VERSION=${GITHUB_REF_NAME#v}
          echo "Syncing version $VERSION to package.json"
          # Update package.json without creating a git tag
          npm version $VERSION --no-git-tag-version

      - name: Build JS Assets
        run: |
          npm ci
          npm run build

      - name: Build Python Package
        env:
          SETUPTOOLS_SCM_PRETEND_VERSION: ${{ github.ref_name }}
        run: uv build

      - name: Publish package distributions to PyPI
        uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1

      - name: Create GitHub Release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
        with:
          generate_release_notes: true

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:
      - "*.*.*"
  workflow_dispatch:
 
permissions:
  contents: read
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  pypi-publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Upload release to PyPI
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    environment:
      name: pypi
      url: https://pypi.org/project/django-unicorn/
 
    permissions:
      id-token: write
      contents: write
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
 
      - name: Install uv
        uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v3
        with:
          enable-cache: true
 
      - name: Set up Python
        run: uv python install 3.10
 
      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: '20'
 
      - name: Sync JS Version
        run: |
          # Extract version from tag (e.g. v1.2.3 -> 1.2.3)
          VERSION=${GITHUB_REF_NAME#v}
          echo "Syncing version $VERSION to package.json"
          # Update package.json without creating a git tag
          npm version $VERSION --no-git-tag-version
 
      - name: Build JS Assets
        run: |
          npm ci
          npm run build
 
      - name: Build Python Package
        env:
          SETUPTOOLS_SCM_PRETEND_VERSION: ${{ github.ref_name }}
        run: uv build
 
      - name: Publish package distributions to PyPI
        uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1
 
      - name: Create GitHub Release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
        with:
          generate_release_notes: true

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.

3 third-party actions are referenced by a movable tag. Pin them 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 astral-sh/setup-uv actions/setup-node softprops/action-gh-release