👀 Backstop CI Runner workflow (garris/BackstopJS)

The 👀 Backstop CI Runner workflow from garris/BackstopJS, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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Source: garris/BackstopJS.github/workflows/_backstop-ci-runner.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the 👀 Backstop CI Runner workflow from the garris/BackstopJS 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: 👀 Backstop CI Runner
run-name: "CI running on ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' && format('PR #{0}: {1}', github.event.pull_request.number, github.event.pull_request.title) || format('latest {0}', github.ref_name) }}"

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  pull_request:
    branches: [master, develop]
  push:
    branches: [master, develop]

permissions:
  actions: write
  checks: write
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write
  packages: write

env:
  BRANCH_NAME: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha || github.head_ref || github.ref_name }}

jobs:    
  backstop-reference-test:
    name: Backstop reference test
    uses: ./.github/workflows/backstop-reference-test.yml

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: 👀 Backstop CI Runner
run-name: "CI running on ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' && format('PR #{0}: {1}', github.event.pull_request.number, github.event.pull_request.title) || format('latest {0}', github.ref_name) }}"
 
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  pull_request:
    branches: [master, develop]
  push:
    branches: [master, develop]
 
permissions:
  actions: write
  checks: write
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write
  packages: write
 
env:
  BRANCH_NAME: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha || github.head_ref || github.ref_name }}
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:    
  backstop-reference-test:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Backstop reference test
    uses: ./.github/workflows/backstop-reference-test.yml

What changed

Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.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.

This workflow runs 1 job per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.