Run tests with latest stable Home Assistant workflow (jseidl/magic-areas)

The Run tests with latest stable Home Assistant workflow from jseidl/magic-areas, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: jseidl/magic-areas.github/workflows/pytest.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Run tests with latest stable Home Assistant workflow from the jseidl/magic-areas 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: Run tests with latest stable Home Assistant

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - "main"

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  test-stable:
    name: "Test against stable release"
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v6
        with:
          python-version: "3.13"

      - name: Install tox and jq
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install -r requirements-test.txt
          sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y jq

      - name: Get latest HA stable version from PyPI
        run: |
          VERSIONS=$(curl -s https://pypi.org/pypi/homeassistant/json | jq -r '.releases | keys | .[]')
          STABLE=$(echo "$VERSIONS" | grep -Ev '[a-zA-Z]' | sort -Vr | head -n1)
          echo "HA_STABLE_VERSION=$STABLE" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Run tox for stable
        run: tox -e ha-stable
        env:
          HA_STABLE_VERSION: ${{ env.HA_STABLE_VERSION }}

  # test-beta:
  #   name: "Test against beta release"
  #   runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  #   continue-on-error: true
  #   steps:
  #     - uses: actions/checkout@v6

  #     - name: Set up Python
  #       uses: actions/setup-python@v6
  #       with:
  #         python-version: "3.13"

  #     - name: Install tox and jq
  #       run: |
  #         python -m pip install --upgrade pip
  #         pip install -r requirements-test.txt
  #         sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y jq

  #     - name: Get latest HA beta version from PyPI
  #       run: |
  #         VERSIONS=$(curl -s https://pypi.org/pypi/homeassistant/json | jq -r '.releases | keys | .[]')
  #         BETA=$(echo "$VERSIONS" | grep 'b' | sort -Vr | head -n1)
  #         echo "HA_BETA_VERSION=$BETA" >> $GITHUB_ENV

  #     - name: Run tox for beta
  #       run: tox -e ha-beta
  #       env:
  #         HA_BETA_VERSION: ${{ env.HA_BETA_VERSION }}

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.

name: Run tests with latest stable Home Assistant
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - "main"
 
permissions:
  contents: read
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  test-stable:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: "Test against stable release"
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
 
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v6
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: "3.13"
 
      - name: Install tox and jq
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install -r requirements-test.txt
          sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y jq
 
      - name: Get latest HA stable version from PyPI
        run: |
          VERSIONS=$(curl -s https://pypi.org/pypi/homeassistant/json | jq -r '.releases | keys | .[]')
          STABLE=$(echo "$VERSIONS" | grep -Ev '[a-zA-Z]' | sort -Vr | head -n1)
          echo "HA_STABLE_VERSION=$STABLE" >> $GITHUB_ENV
 
      - name: Run tox for stable
        run: tox -e ha-stable
        env:
          HA_STABLE_VERSION: ${{ env.HA_STABLE_VERSION }}
 
  # test-beta:
  #   name: "Test against beta release"
  #   runs-on: latchkey-small
  #   continue-on-error: true
  #   steps:
  #     - uses: actions/checkout@v6
 
  #     - name: Set up Python
  #       uses: actions/setup-python@v6
          with:
            cache: 'pip'
  #       with:
  #         python-version: "3.13"
 
  #     - name: Install tox and jq
  #       run: |
  #         python -m pip install --upgrade pip
  #         pip install -r requirements-test.txt
  #         sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y jq
 
  #     - name: Get latest HA beta version from PyPI
  #       run: |
  #         VERSIONS=$(curl -s https://pypi.org/pypi/homeassistant/json | jq -r '.releases | keys | .[]')
  #         BETA=$(echo "$VERSIONS" | grep 'b' | sort -Vr | head -n1)
  #         echo "HA_BETA_VERSION=$BETA" >> $GITHUB_ENV
 
  #     - name: Run tox for beta
  #       run: tox -e ha-beta
  #       env:
  #         HA_BETA_VERSION: ${{ env.HA_BETA_VERSION }}

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.
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.

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

actions/checkout actions/setup-python