Backstop Sanity Docker workflow (garris/BackstopJS)

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

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Source: garris/BackstopJS.github/workflows/backstop-sanity-docker.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Backstop Sanity Docker 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 Sanity Docker

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  workflow_call:

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

env:
  NODE_VERSION: 20
  # BRANCH_NAME: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head_ref || github.event.pull_request.head.ref_name || github.head_ref || github.ref_name }}
  # REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  # IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}

jobs:
  sanity-puppeteer-docker:
    name: 🤪 Puppeteer-On-Docker
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 1
          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha || github.ref }}

      - name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
        run:
          echo "USERNAME=${secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME}" >>${GITHUB_ENV}
          echo "USERNAME=${secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN}" >>${GITHUB_ENV}
          
      - name: Set Name and Tag Vars
        env:
          name: "${{ env.BRANCH_NAME }}"
        run: |
          echo "IMAGE_NAME_LC=${IMAGE_NAME,,}" >>${GITHUB_ENV}
          echo "TAG=${name/\//-}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "PV=$(cat package.json | jq -r '.version')" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "PLAYWRIGHT_VERSION=$(cat package.json | jq -r '.dependencies.playwright')"  >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: ⬢ Setup Node & Cache
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: "npm"
          cache-dependency-path: package-lock.json

      - name: ↧ Install
        run: npm ci

      - name: "𓋏 Run `npm run sanity-test-docker`"
        run: |
          npm run sanity-test-docker

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Backstop Sanity Docker
 
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  workflow_call:
 
permissions:
  actions: write
  checks: write
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write
  packages: write
 
env:
  NODE_VERSION: 20
  # BRANCH_NAME: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head_ref || github.event.pull_request.head.ref_name || github.head_ref || github.ref_name }}
  # REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  # IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}
 
jobs:
  sanity-puppeteer-docker:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: 🤪 Puppeteer-On-Docker
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 1
          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha || github.ref }}
 
      - name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
        run:
          echo "USERNAME=${secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME}" >>${GITHUB_ENV}
          echo "USERNAME=${secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN}" >>${GITHUB_ENV}
          
      - name: Set Name and Tag Vars
        env:
          name: "${{ env.BRANCH_NAME }}"
        run: |
          echo "IMAGE_NAME_LC=${IMAGE_NAME,,}" >>${GITHUB_ENV}
          echo "TAG=${name/\//-}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "PV=$(cat package.json | jq -r '.version')" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "PLAYWRIGHT_VERSION=$(cat package.json | jq -r '.dependencies.playwright')"  >> $GITHUB_ENV
 
      - name: ⬢ Setup Node & Cache
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: "npm"
          cache-dependency-path: package-lock.json
 
      - name: ↧ Install
        run: npm ci
 
      - name: "𓋏 Run `npm run sanity-test-docker`"
        run: |
          npm run sanity-test-docker

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.

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
End-to-end and browser tests

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 docker/login-action actions/setup-node