CodeQL workflow (h5bp/html5-boilerplate)

The CodeQL workflow from h5bp/html5-boilerplate, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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

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Source: h5bp/html5-boilerplate.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the CodeQL workflow from the h5bp/html5-boilerplate 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: "CodeQL"

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - "!dependabot/**"
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
      - "!dependabot/**"
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  analyze:
    name: Analyze
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      actions: read
      contents: read
      security-events: write

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
        with:
          persist-credentials: false

      - name: Initialize CodeQL
        uses: github/codeql-action/init@8aad20d150bbac5944a9f9d289da16a4b0d87c1e # v4.36.2
        with:
          languages: "javascript"
          queries: +security-and-quality

      - name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
        uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@8aad20d150bbac5944a9f9d289da16a4b0d87c1e # v4.36.2

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: "CodeQL"
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - "!dependabot/**"
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
      - "!dependabot/**"
  workflow_dispatch:
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  analyze:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Analyze
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      actions: read
      contents: read
      security-events: write
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
        with:
          persist-credentials: false
 
      - name: Initialize CodeQL
        uses: github/codeql-action/init@8aad20d150bbac5944a9f9d289da16a4b0d87c1e # v4.36.2
        with:
          languages: "javascript"
          queries: +security-and-quality
 
      - name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
        uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@8aad20d150bbac5944a9f9d289da16a4b0d87c1e # v4.36.2

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.

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 github/codeql-action