Run Tests workflow (gin-gonic/gin)

The Run Tests workflow from gin-gonic/gin, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

Point runs-on at Latchkey and get run de-duplication, job timeouts, SHA-pinned actions, self-healing for flaky steps, and up to 58% lower cost, applied automatically.

Grade your own workflow free or run it on Latchkey →

Source: gin-gonic/gin.github/workflows/gin.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Run Tests workflow from the gin-gonic/gin 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: Run Tests

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - master

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Set up Go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: "^1"
      - name: Setup golangci-lint
        uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v9
        with:
          version: v2.11
          args: --verbose
  test:
    needs: lint
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest]
        go: ["1.25", "1.26"]
        test-tags:
          [
            "",
            "-tags nomsgpack",
            '--ldflags="-checklinkname=0" -tags sonic',
            "-tags go_json",
            "-race",
          ]
        include:
          - os: ubuntu-latest
            go-build: ~/.cache/go-build
          - os: macos-latest
            go-build: ~/Library/Caches/go-build
    name: ${{ matrix.os }} @ Go ${{ matrix.go }} ${{ matrix.test-tags }}
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    env:
      GO111MODULE: on
      TESTTAGS: ${{ matrix.test-tags }}
      GOPROXY: https://proxy.golang.org
    steps:
      - name: Set up Go ${{ matrix.go }}
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: ${{ matrix.go }}
          cache: false

      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.ref }}

      - uses: actions/cache@v5
        with:
          path: |
            ${{ matrix.go-build }}
            ~/go/pkg/mod
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-go-${{ hashFiles('**/go.sum') }}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-go-

      - name: Run Tests
        run: make test

      - name: Upload coverage to Codecov
        uses: codecov/codecov-action@v6
        with:
          flags: ${{ matrix.os }},go-${{ matrix.go }},${{ matrix.test-tags }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Run Tests
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - master
 
permissions:
  contents: read
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  lint:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Set up Go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: "^1"
      - name: Setup golangci-lint
        uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v9
        with:
          version: v2.11
          args: --verbose
  test:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    needs: lint
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest]
        go: ["1.25", "1.26"]
        test-tags:
          [
            "",
            "-tags nomsgpack",
            '--ldflags="-checklinkname=0" -tags sonic',
            "-tags go_json",
            "-race",
          ]
        include:
          - os: ubuntu-latest
            go-build: ~/.cache/go-build
          - os: macos-latest
            go-build: ~/Library/Caches/go-build
    name: ${{ matrix.os }} @ Go ${{ matrix.go }} ${{ matrix.test-tags }}
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    env:
      GO111MODULE: on
      TESTTAGS: ${{ matrix.test-tags }}
      GOPROXY: https://proxy.golang.org
    steps:
      - name: Set up Go ${{ matrix.go }}
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: ${{ matrix.go }}
          cache: false
 
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.ref }}
 
      - uses: actions/cache@v5
        with:
          path: |
            ${{ matrix.go-build }}
            ~/go/pkg/mod
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-go-${{ hashFiles('**/go.sum') }}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-go-
 
      - name: Run Tests
        run: make test
 
      - name: Upload coverage to Codecov
        uses: codecov/codecov-action@v6
        with:
          flags: ${{ matrix.os }},go-${{ matrix.go }},${{ matrix.test-tags }}

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.

2 third-party actions are referenced by a movable tag. Pin them to the commit SHA (Latchkey resolves and applies this automatically) so a repointed tag cannot change what runs.

This workflow runs 2 jobs (21 with the matrix expanded) 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 actions/setup-go golangci/golangci-lint-action actions/cache codecov/codecov-action