Backstop Publish workflow (garris/BackstopJS)

The Backstop Publish workflow from garris/BackstopJS, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Backstop Publish 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

name: Backstop Publish
#doesnt work :(

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  workflow_call:


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 }}
  NODE_VERSION: 20

jobs:
  backstop-publish-flow:
    name: publish-flow
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: publish to npm
        uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-push.yml

      - name: publish to dockerhub
        uses: ./.github/workflows/dockerhub-build-push.yml

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Backstop Publish
#doesnt work :(
 
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  workflow_call:
 
 
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 }}
  NODE_VERSION: 20
 
jobs:
  backstop-publish-flow:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: publish-flow
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: publish to npm
        uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-push.yml
 
      - name: publish to dockerhub
        uses: ./.github/workflows/dockerhub-build-push.yml
 

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.
• 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.