Publish release workflow (john-hen/Flake8-pyproject)

The Publish release workflow from john-hen/Flake8-pyproject, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Publish release workflow from the john-hen/Flake8-pyproject 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

# Publish new release on PyPI.
name: Publish release

on: [workflow_dispatch]

jobs:

  build:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:

        - name: Check out code.
          uses: actions/checkout@v7

        - name: Install Python.
          uses: actions/setup-python@v6
          with:
            python-version: '3.14'

        - name: Install project.
          run:  pip install --editable .[dev]

        - name: Build wheel.
          run:  flit build --format wheel

        - name: Store wheel.
          uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7
          with:
            name: wheel
            path: dist


  publish:
      needs:
        - build
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      environment:
          name: PyPI
          url:  https://pypi.org/p/Flake8-pyproject
      permissions:
          id-token: write
      steps:

        - name: Download wheel.
          uses: actions/download-artifact@v8
          with:
            name: wheel
            path: dist

        - name: Publish to PyPI.
          uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1
          with:
            packages-dir: dist

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.

# Publish new release on PyPI.
name: Publish release
 
on: [workflow_dispatch]
 
jobs:
 
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
      runs-on: latchkey-small
      steps:
 
        - name: Check out code.
          uses: actions/checkout@v7
 
        - name: Install Python.
          uses: actions/setup-python@v6
          with:
            cache: 'pip'
            python-version: '3.14'
 
        - name: Install project.
          run:  pip install --editable .[dev]
 
        - name: Build wheel.
          run:  flit build --format wheel
 
        - name: Store wheel.
          uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7
          with:
            name: wheel
            path: dist
 
 
  publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
      needs:
        - build
      runs-on: latchkey-small
      environment:
          name: PyPI
          url:  https://pypi.org/p/Flake8-pyproject
      permissions:
          id-token: write
      steps:
 
        - name: Download wheel.
          uses: actions/download-artifact@v8
          with:
            name: wheel
            path: dist
 
        - name: Publish to PyPI.
          uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1
          with:
            packages-dir: dist
 

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.

1 third-party action is referenced by a movable tag. Pin it to the commit SHA (Latchkey resolves and applies this automatically) so a repointed tag cannot change what runs.

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