Arm Packages build workflow (hovancik/stretchly)

The Arm Packages build workflow from hovancik/stretchly, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Arm Packages build workflow from the hovancik/stretchly repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its BSD-2-Clause license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

name: Arm Packages build

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - release

env:
  USE_SYSTEM_FPM: true

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04-arm
    steps:
    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v6
    - name: Install ARM build dependencies
      run: sudo apt update && sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y ruby-full libarchive-tools
    - name: Install fpm
      run: sudo gem install fpm -v 1.16.0
    - name: Setup build environment
      uses: ./.github/actions/setup-build
    - name: Build packages
      run: node_modules/.bin/electron-builder build
      env:
        GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.github_token }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Arm Packages build
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - release
 
env:
  USE_SYSTEM_FPM: true
 
permissions:
  contents: write
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small-arm
    steps:
    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v6
    - name: Install ARM build dependencies
      run: sudo apt update && sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y ruby-full libarchive-tools
    - name: Install fpm
      run: sudo gem install fpm -v 1.16.0
    - name: Setup build environment
      uses: ./.github/actions/setup-build
    - name: Build packages
      run: node_modules/.bin/electron-builder build
      env:
        GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.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• Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.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