Build dist workflow (jarrodwatts/claude-hud)

The Build dist workflow from jarrodwatts/claude-hud, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Build dist workflow from the jarrodwatts/claude-hud 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: Build dist

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

concurrency:
  group: build-dist
  cancel-in-progress: false

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[auto]')"

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'

      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run build

      - name: Verify build output
        run: test -f dist/index.js || exit 1

      - name: Commit dist/
        run: |
          git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
          git config user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
          git add dist/ --force
          git diff --staged --quiet || git commit -m "build: compile dist/ [auto]"
          git push

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Build dist
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
 
concurrency:
  group: build-dist
  cancel-in-progress: false
 
permissions:
  contents: write
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[auto]')"
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
 
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run build
 
      - name: Verify build output
        run: test -f dist/index.js || exit 1
 
      - name: Commit dist/
        run: |
          git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
          git config user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
          git add dist/ --force
          git diff --staged --quiet || git commit -m "build: compile dist/ [auto]"
          git push
 

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.
• 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