dev-builds workflow (hotwired/stimulus)

The dev-builds workflow from hotwired/stimulus, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the dev-builds workflow from the hotwired/stimulus 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: dev-builds

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - 'builds/**'

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: 'yarn'

      - run: yarn install
      - run: yarn build

      - name: Publish dev build
        run: .github/scripts/publish-dev-build '${{ secrets.DEV_BUILD_GITHUB_TOKEN }}'

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: dev-builds
 
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - 'builds/**'
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: 'yarn'
 
      - run: yarn install
      - run: yarn build
 
      - name: Publish dev build
        run: .github/scripts/publish-dev-build '${{ secrets.DEV_BUILD_GITHUB_TOKEN }}'
 

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• Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.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.

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 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