Release workflow (FormidableLabs/webpack-dashboard)

The Release workflow from FormidableLabs/webpack-dashboard, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Release workflow from the FormidableLabs/webpack-dashboard 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

name: Release
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
jobs:
  release:
    name: Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
      id-token: write
      issues: write
      repository-projects: write
      deployments: write
      packages: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: "yarn"
          node-version: 18
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile

      - name: Check CI
        run: yarn check-ci
      - name: Unit Tests
        run: yarn test

      - name: PR or Publish
        id: changesets
        uses: changesets/action@v1
        with:
          version: yarn changeset version
          publish: yarn changeset publish
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Release
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Release
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: write
      id-token: write
      issues: write
      repository-projects: write
      deployments: write
      packages: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: "yarn"
          node-version: 18
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
 
      - name: Check CI
        run: yarn check-ci
      - name: Unit Tests
        run: yarn test
 
      - name: PR or Publish
        id: changesets
        uses: changesets/action@v1
        with:
          version: yarn changeset version
          publish: yarn changeset publish
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
 

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.

1 third-party action is referenced by a movable tag. Pin it 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