(Compiler) Publish Prereleases workflow (facebook/react)

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

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Source: facebook/react.github/workflows/compiler_prereleases.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the (Compiler) Publish Prereleases 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) Publish Prereleases

on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      commit_sha:
        required: true
        default: ''
        type: string
      release_channel:
        required: true
        type: string
      dist_tag:
        required: true
        type: string
      version_name:
        required: true
        type: string
      tag_version:
        required: false
        type: string
      dry_run:
        required: false
        type: boolean
    secrets:
      NPM_TOKEN:
        required: true

permissions: {}

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
  NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

defaults:
  run:
    working-directory: compiler

jobs:
  publish_prerelease:
    name: Publish prelease (${{ inputs.release_channel }}) ${{ inputs.commit_sha }} @${{ inputs.dist_tag }}
    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-node_modules-v6-${{ runner.arch }}-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('compiler/yarn.lock') }}
      - run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
        if: steps.node_modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      - if: inputs.dry_run == true
        name: Publish packages to npm (dry run)
        run: |
          cp ./scripts/release/ci-npmrc ~/.npmrc
          scripts/release/publish.js --frfr --debug --ci --versionName=${{ inputs.version_name }} --tag=${{ inputs.dist_tag }} ${{ inputs.tag_version && format('--tagVersion={0}', inputs.tag_version) || '' }}
      - if: inputs.dry_run != true
        name: Publish packages to npm
        run: |
          cp ./scripts/release/ci-npmrc ~/.npmrc
          scripts/release/publish.js --frfr --ci --versionName=${{ inputs.version_name }} --tag=${{ inputs.dist_tag }} ${{ inputs.tag_version && format('--tagVersion={0}', inputs.tag_version) || '' }}

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: (Compiler) Publish Prereleases
 
on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      commit_sha:
        required: true
        default: ''
        type: string
      release_channel:
        required: true
        type: string
      dist_tag:
        required: true
        type: string
      version_name:
        required: true
        type: string
      tag_version:
        required: false
        type: string
      dry_run:
        required: false
        type: boolean
    secrets:
      NPM_TOKEN:
        required: true
 
permissions: {}
 
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
  NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
 
defaults:
  run:
    working-directory: compiler
 
jobs:
  publish_prerelease:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Publish prelease (${{ inputs.release_channel }}) ${{ inputs.commit_sha }} @${{ inputs.dist_tag }}
    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-node_modules-v6-${{ runner.arch }}-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('compiler/yarn.lock') }}
      - run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
        if: steps.node_modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      - if: inputs.dry_run == true
        name: Publish packages to npm (dry run)
        run: |
          cp ./scripts/release/ci-npmrc ~/.npmrc
          scripts/release/publish.js --frfr --debug --ci --versionName=${{ inputs.version_name }} --tag=${{ inputs.dist_tag }} ${{ inputs.tag_version && format('--tagVersion={0}', inputs.tag_version) || '' }}
      - if: inputs.dry_run != true
        name: Publish packages to npm
        run: |
          cp ./scripts/release/ci-npmrc ~/.npmrc
          scripts/release/publish.js --frfr --ci --versionName=${{ inputs.version_name }} --tag=${{ inputs.dist_tag }} ${{ inputs.tag_version && format('--tagVersion={0}', inputs.tag_version) || '' }}

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.
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

actions/checkout actions/setup-node actions/cache