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(Compiler) Playground workflow (facebook/react)

The (Compiler) Playground workflow from facebook/react, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

Source: facebook/react.github/workflows/compiler_playground.ymlLicense MITView source
C
CI health grade
69/100
Health score
1
Job per trigger
3
Fixes in the optimized version

In short

  1. CI health: C (fair)
  2. The optimized version below points runs-on at Latchkey managed runners and adds caching and job timeouts.

What it does

This is the (Compiler) Playground workflow from the facebook/react 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: (Compiler) Playground

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - compiler/**
      - .github/workflows/compiler_playground.yml

permissions: {}

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{ github.event.pull_request.number || github.run_id }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

env:
  TZ: /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles
  # https://github.com/actions/cache/blob/main/tips-and-workarounds.md#cache-segment-restore-timeout
  SEGMENT_DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT_MINS: 1

defaults:
  run:
    working-directory: compiler/apps/playground

jobs:
  playground:
    name: Test playground
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version-file: '.nvmrc'
      - name: Cache node_modules
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        id: node_modules
        with:
          path: |
            **/node_modules
          key: compiler-and-playground-node_modules-v6-${{ runner.arch }}-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('compiler/**/yarn.lock') }}
      - run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
        if: steps.node_modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
        working-directory: compiler
      - run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
        if: steps.node_modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      - name: Check Playwright version
        id: playwright_version
        run: echo "playwright_version=$(npm ls @playwright/test | grep @playwright | sed 's/.*@//' | head -1)" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
      - name: Cache Playwright Browsers for version ${{ steps.playwright_version.outputs.playwright_version }}
        id: cache_playwright_browsers
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: ~/.cache/ms-playwright
          key: playwright-browsers-v6-${{ runner.arch }}-${{ runner.os }}-${{ steps.playwright_version.outputs.playwright_version }}
      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps chromium
        if: steps.cache_playwright_browsers.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      - run: CI=true yarn test
      - run: ls -R test-results
        if: '!cancelled()'
      - name: Archive test results
        if: '!cancelled()'
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: test-results
          path: compiler/apps/playground/test-results
          if-no-files-found: ignore

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.

workflow (.yml), optimized
name: (Compiler) Playground

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - compiler/**
      - .github/workflows/compiler_playground.yml

permissions: {}

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref_name }}-${{ github.event.pull_request.number || github.run_id }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

env:
  TZ: /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles
  # https://github.com/actions/cache/blob/main/tips-and-workarounds.md#cache-segment-restore-timeout
  SEGMENT_DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT_MINS: 1

defaults:
  run:
    working-directory: compiler/apps/playground

jobs:
  playground:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Test playground
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version-file: '.nvmrc'
      - name: Cache node_modules
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        id: node_modules
        with:
          path: |
            **/node_modules
          key: compiler-and-playground-node_modules-v6-${{ runner.arch }}-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('compiler/**/yarn.lock') }}
      - run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
        if: steps.node_modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
        working-directory: compiler
      - run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
        if: steps.node_modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      - name: Check Playwright version
        id: playwright_version
        run: echo "playwright_version=$(npm ls @playwright/test | grep @playwright | sed 's/.*@//' | head -1)" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
      - name: Cache Playwright Browsers for version ${{ steps.playwright_version.outputs.playwright_version }}
        id: cache_playwright_browsers
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: ~/.cache/ms-playwright
          key: playwright-browsers-v6-${{ runner.arch }}-${{ runner.os }}-${{ steps.playwright_version.outputs.playwright_version }}
      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps chromium
        if: steps.cache_playwright_browsers.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      - run: CI=true yarn test
      - run: ls -R test-results
        if: '!cancelled()'
      - name: Archive test results
        if: '!cancelled()'
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: test-results
          path: compiler/apps/playground/test-results
          if-no-files-found: ignore

What changed

  1. Run on Latchkey managed runners with one line (runs-on), which apply the fixes below automatically and self-heal transient failures. Each Linux x64 job moves to the Latchkey size matching its vCPU count, latchkey-small for a standard 2 vCPU runner; macOS, Windows and arm64 jobs stay as written.
  2. Cache dependency installs on the setup step so they are served from cache.
  3. 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
  • End-to-end and browser tests

This workflow runs 1 job per trigger. It runs on a standard GitHub-hosted Linux x64 runner, which in a private repository bills $0.006 a minute against $0.0025 on latchkey-small, 58% lower; in a public repository like this one it is free. Estimate the monthly difference with your own run counts.

Actions used in this workflow

  • actions/checkout
  • actions/setup-node
  • actions/cache
  • actions/upload-artifact

Frequently asked questions

What does the (Compiler) Playground workflow (facebook/react) workflow do?
This is the (Compiler) Playground workflow from the facebook/react repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its MIT license.
What CI health grade does this workflow get?
This Node.js workflow grades C. Paste your own workflow into the Latchkey grader to see its grade and the exact fixes.
How can I improve this Node.js workflow?
Add caching and job timeouts. Latchkey applies these automatically on managed runners when you point runs-on at Latchkey.

References