Build and Push Docker Image workflow (journey-ad/Moe-Counter)

The Build and Push Docker Image workflow from journey-ad/Moe-Counter, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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

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Source: journey-ad/Moe-Counter.github/workflows/docker-publish.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Build and Push Docker Image workflow from the journey-ad/Moe-Counter 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: Build and Push Docker Image

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
    # Optional: trigger only on specific file changes
    # paths:
    #   - 'Dockerfile'
    #   - 'package.json'
    #   - 'pnpm-lock.yaml'
    #   - '**.js'

env:
  REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}

jobs:
  build-and-push:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Authenticate to GitHub Container Registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Extract Docker metadata
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
        with:
          images: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}
          tags: |
            type=ref,event=branch
            type=sha,prefix=
            type=raw,value=latest,enable={{is_default_branch}}

      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3

      - name: Build and push Docker image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
          cache-from: type=gha
          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Build and Push Docker Image
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
    # Optional: trigger only on specific file changes
    # paths:
    #   - 'Dockerfile'
    #   - 'package.json'
    #   - 'pnpm-lock.yaml'
    #   - '**.js'
 
env:
  REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build-and-push:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - name: Authenticate to GitHub Container Registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 
      - name: Extract Docker metadata
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
        with:
          images: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}
          tags: |
            type=ref,event=branch
            type=sha,prefix=
            type=raw,value=latest,enable={{is_default_branch}}
 
      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
 
      - name: Build and push Docker image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
          cache-from: type=gha
          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max

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.

4 third-party actions are referenced by a movable tag. Pin them 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:

Container pulls and builds

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 docker/login-action docker/metadata-action docker/setup-buildx-action docker/build-push-action