Create Release workflow (FredKSchott/snowpack)

The Create Release workflow from FredKSchott/snowpack, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Create Release workflow from the FredKSchott/snowpack 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

# Inspired by https://bret.io/projects/package-automation/

name: Create Release

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      tag:
        description: 'what kind of release? (ex: "next", "latest")'
        required: true
      packagePath:
        description: 'path to package? (ex: "snowpack", "plugins/plugin-babel")'
        required: true

env:
  node_version: 14

jobs:
  version_and_release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      # SETUP:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Use Node.js ${{ env.node_version }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          node-version: ${{ env.node_version }}
          # (REQUIRED) setting a registry enables the NODE_AUTH_TOKEN env variable where we can set an npm token.
          registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
      - run: git config --global user.email "github-ci@snowpack.dev"
      - run: git config --global user.name " ${{ github.actor }}"
      - run: yarn --frozen-lockfile

      # PUBLISH:
      - run: node -e "require('./scripts/release.cjs')('${{ github.event.inputs.packagePath }}', '${{ github.event.inputs.tag }}')"
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

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.

# Inspired by https://bret.io/projects/package-automation/
 
name: Create Release
 
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      tag:
        description: 'what kind of release? (ex: "next", "latest")'
        required: true
      packagePath:
        description: 'path to package? (ex: "snowpack", "plugins/plugin-babel")'
        required: true
 
env:
  node_version: 14
 
jobs:
  version_and_release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      # SETUP:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Use Node.js ${{ env.node_version }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: ${{ env.node_version }}
          # (REQUIRED) setting a registry enables the NODE_AUTH_TOKEN env variable where we can set an npm token.
          registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
      - run: git config --global user.email "github-ci@snowpack.dev"
      - run: git config --global user.name " ${{ github.actor }}"
      - run: yarn --frozen-lockfile
 
      # PUBLISH:
      - run: node -e "require('./scripts/release.cjs')('${{ github.event.inputs.packagePath }}', '${{ github.event.inputs.tag }}')"
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_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.
• 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