Docker build and publish workflow

GitHub's official Docker publish starter workflow, explained and hardened by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

Point runs-on at Latchkey and get run de-duplication, job timeouts, SHA-pinned actions, self-healing for flaky steps, and up to 58% lower cost, applied automatically.

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Source: GitHub official starter workflowci/docker-publish.ymlLicense CC0-1.0View source

What it does

This is the Docker publish workflow GitHub offers by default. It builds a container image with Buildx, signs it with cosign, and pushes it to the GitHub Container Registry, using the GitHub Actions cache for layers.

It uses several third-party actions pinned only to tags, which Latchkey flags for SHA pinning below, and it adds concurrency and a job timeout.

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

name: Docker

on:
  push:
    branches: [ "main" ]
    tags: [ 'v*.*.*' ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "main" ]

env:
  REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install cosign
        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
        uses: sigstore/cosign-installer@v3.5.0
        with:
          cosign-release: 'v2.2.4'
      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3.0.0
      - name: Log into registry ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
        uses: docker/login-action@v3.0.0
        with:
          registry: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - name: Extract Docker metadata
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5.0.0
        with:
          images: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}
      - name: Build and push Docker image
        id: build-and-push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5.0.0
        with:
          context: .
          push: ${{ github.event_name != 'pull_request' }}
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
          cache-from: type=gha
          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Docker
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [ "main" ]
    tags: [ 'v*.*.*' ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "main" ]
 
env:
  REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install cosign
        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
        uses: sigstore/cosign-installer@v3.5.0
        with:
          cosign-release: 'v2.2.4'
      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3.0.0
      - name: Log into registry ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
        uses: docker/login-action@v3.0.0
        with:
          registry: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - name: Extract Docker metadata
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5.0.0
        with:
          images: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}
      - name: Build and push Docker image
        id: build-and-push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5.0.0
        with:
          context: .
          push: ${{ github.event_name != 'pull_request' }}
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
          cache-from: type=gha
          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max

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.
Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

5 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:

Container pulls and builds

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 docker/setup-buildx-action docker/login-action docker/metadata-action docker/build-push-action