Build workflow (explosion/spaCy)

The Build workflow from explosion/spaCy, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

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Source: explosion/spaCy.github/workflows/cibuildwheel.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Build workflow from the explosion/spaCy 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: Build

on:
  push:
    tags:
      # ytf did they invent their own syntax that's almost regex?
      # ** matches 'zero or more of any character'
      - 'release-v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+**'
      - 'prerelease-v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+**'

permissions: {}

jobs:
  build_wheels:
    uses: explosion/gha-cibuildwheel/.github/workflows/cibuildwheel.yml@2c98f757f13d112cf73fcf4b627249f1fffb5aae  # main
    permissions:
      contents: write
      actions: read
    with:
      wheel-name-pattern: "spacy-*.whl"
      pure-python: false
    secrets:
      gh-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  smoke_test:
    name: Smoke test
    needs: build_wheels
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4

      - uses: actions/setup-python@a26af69be951a213d495a4c3e4e4022e16d87065 # v5
        with:
          python-version: "3.12"

      - uses: robinraju/release-downloader@daf26c55d821e836577a15f77d86ddc078948b05  # v1
        with:
          tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
          fileName: "spacy-*cp312*manylinux*x86_64*.whl"
          out-file-path: "dist"

      - name: Install from wheel
        run: |
          WHEEL=$(ls dist/spacy-*cp312*manylinux*x86_64*.whl | head -1)
          pip install "$WHEEL"

      - name: Test import
        run: python -c "import spacy; print('spacy==' + spacy.__version__)"

      - name: Download and load model
        run: |
          python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm
          python -c "
          import spacy
          nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
          doc = nlp('Apple is looking at buying U.K. startup for \$1 billion')
          assert len(doc.ents) > 0, 'No entities found'
          print('Model load OK:', nlp.meta['name'], '@', nlp.meta['version'])
          print('Entities:', [(ent.text, ent.label_) for ent in doc.ents])
          "

  upgrade_test:
    name: Upgrade test
    needs: build_wheels
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4

      - uses: actions/setup-python@a26af69be951a213d495a4c3e4e4022e16d87065 # v5
        with:
          python-version: "3.12"

      - name: Install previous spaCy version
        run: |
          pip install "spacy>=3.8.0,<${{ github.ref_name }}" || pip install "spacy<4"
          python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm
          python -c "
          import spacy
          nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
          print('Pre-upgrade:', spacy.__version__, nlp.meta['name'], '@', nlp.meta['version'])
          "

      - uses: robinraju/release-downloader@daf26c55d821e836577a15f77d86ddc078948b05  # v1
        with:
          tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
          fileName: "spacy-*cp312*manylinux*x86_64*.whl"
          out-file-path: "dist"

      - name: Upgrade to new version
        run: |
          WHEEL=$(ls dist/spacy-*cp312*manylinux*x86_64*.whl | head -1)
          pip install "$WHEEL"

      - name: Test model still loads after upgrade
        run: |
          python -c "
          import spacy
          nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
          doc = nlp('Apple is looking at buying U.K. startup for \$1 billion')
          assert len(doc.ents) > 0, 'No entities found after upgrade'
          print('Post-upgrade:', spacy.__version__, nlp.meta['name'], '@', nlp.meta['version'])
          print('Entities:', [(ent.text, ent.label_) for ent in doc.ents])
          "

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: Build
 
on:
  push:
    tags:
      # ytf did they invent their own syntax that's almost regex?
      # ** matches 'zero or more of any character'
      - 'release-v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+**'
      - 'prerelease-v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+**'
 
permissions: {}
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build_wheels:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    uses: explosion/gha-cibuildwheel/.github/workflows/cibuildwheel.yml@2c98f757f13d112cf73fcf4b627249f1fffb5aae  # main
    permissions:
      contents: write
      actions: read
    with:
      wheel-name-pattern: "spacy-*.whl"
      pure-python: false
    secrets:
      gh-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 
  smoke_test:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Smoke test
    needs: build_wheels
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4
 
      - uses: actions/setup-python@a26af69be951a213d495a4c3e4e4022e16d87065 # v5
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: "3.12"
 
      - uses: robinraju/release-downloader@daf26c55d821e836577a15f77d86ddc078948b05  # v1
        with:
          tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
          fileName: "spacy-*cp312*manylinux*x86_64*.whl"
          out-file-path: "dist"
 
      - name: Install from wheel
        run: |
          WHEEL=$(ls dist/spacy-*cp312*manylinux*x86_64*.whl | head -1)
          pip install "$WHEEL"
 
      - name: Test import
        run: python -c "import spacy; print('spacy==' + spacy.__version__)"
 
      - name: Download and load model
        run: |
          python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm
          python -c "
          import spacy
          nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
          doc = nlp('Apple is looking at buying U.K. startup for \$1 billion')
          assert len(doc.ents) > 0, 'No entities found'
          print('Model load OK:', nlp.meta['name'], '@', nlp.meta['version'])
          print('Entities:', [(ent.text, ent.label_) for ent in doc.ents])
          "
 
  upgrade_test:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Upgrade test
    needs: build_wheels
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4
 
      - uses: actions/setup-python@a26af69be951a213d495a4c3e4e4022e16d87065 # v5
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: "3.12"
 
      - name: Install previous spaCy version
        run: |
          pip install "spacy>=3.8.0,<${{ github.ref_name }}" || pip install "spacy<4"
          python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm
          python -c "
          import spacy
          nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
          print('Pre-upgrade:', spacy.__version__, nlp.meta['name'], '@', nlp.meta['version'])
          "
 
      - uses: robinraju/release-downloader@daf26c55d821e836577a15f77d86ddc078948b05  # v1
        with:
          tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
          fileName: "spacy-*cp312*manylinux*x86_64*.whl"
          out-file-path: "dist"
 
      - name: Upgrade to new version
        run: |
          WHEEL=$(ls dist/spacy-*cp312*manylinux*x86_64*.whl | head -1)
          pip install "$WHEEL"
 
      - name: Test model still loads after upgrade
        run: |
          python -c "
          import spacy
          nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
          doc = nlp('Apple is looking at buying U.K. startup for \$1 billion')
          assert len(doc.ents) > 0, 'No entities found after upgrade'
          print('Post-upgrade:', spacy.__version__, nlp.meta['name'], '@', nlp.meta['version'])
          print('Entities:', [(ent.text, ent.label_) for ent in doc.ents])
          "

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 3 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/checkout actions/setup-python