Deploy Documentation workflow (giovi321/ios-backup-machine)

The Deploy Documentation workflow from giovi321/ios-backup-machine, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Deploy Documentation workflow from the giovi321/ios-backup-machine 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: Deploy Documentation

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "docs/**"
      - ".github/workflows/docs.yml"
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  pages: write
  id-token: write

concurrency:
  group: pages
  cancel-in-progress: false

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    defaults:
      run:
        working-directory: docs
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: "22"

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Build Starlight site
        run: npm run build

      - uses: actions/configure-pages@v6
        with:
          enablement: true

      - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v5
        with:
          path: docs/dist

  deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
    steps:
      - id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v5

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.

name: Deploy Documentation
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "docs/**"
      - ".github/workflows/docs.yml"
  workflow_dispatch:
 
permissions:
  contents: read
  pages: write
  id-token: write
 
concurrency:
  group: pages
  cancel-in-progress: false
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    defaults:
      run:
        working-directory: docs
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
 
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: "22"
 
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install
 
      - name: Build Starlight site
        run: npm run build
 
      - uses: actions/configure-pages@v6
        with:
          enablement: true
 
      - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v5
        with:
          path: docs/dist
 
  deploy:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    needs: build
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
    steps:
      - id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v5
 

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 2 jobs per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow