CodeQL workflow (knex/knex)

The CodeQL workflow from knex/knex, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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Source: knex/knex.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the CodeQL workflow from the knex/knex 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: 'CodeQL'

on:
  push:
    branches: [master]
  pull_request:
    branches: [master]
  schedule:
    - cron: '36 2 * * 0'

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  analyze:
    # skip the auto-generated "release X.Y.Z" commit pushed by the
    # release workflow (lib/** is rebuilt from unchanged source; the
    # parent commit was already analysed). security analysis still runs
    # on `skip-tests` PRs - it's orthogonal to test coverage.
    if: ${{ !(github.actor == 'github-actions[bot]' && startsWith(github.event.head_commit.message, 'release ')) }}
    permissions:
      actions: read # for github/codeql-action/init to get workflow details
      contents: read # for actions/checkout to fetch code
      security-events: write # for github/codeql-action/analyze to upload SARIF results
    name: Analyze
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        language: ['javascript']

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Initialize CodeQL
        uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
        with:
          languages: ${{ matrix.language }}

      - name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
        uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v2

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: 'CodeQL'
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [master]
  pull_request:
    branches: [master]
  schedule:
    - cron: '36 2 * * 0'
 
permissions:
  contents: read
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  analyze:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    # skip the auto-generated "release X.Y.Z" commit pushed by the
    # release workflow (lib/** is rebuilt from unchanged source; the
    # parent commit was already analysed). security analysis still runs
    # on `skip-tests` PRs - it's orthogonal to test coverage.
    if: ${{ !(github.actor == 'github-actions[bot]' && startsWith(github.event.head_commit.message, 'release ')) }}
    permissions:
      actions: read # for github/codeql-action/init to get workflow details
      contents: read # for actions/checkout to fetch code
      security-events: write # for github/codeql-action/analyze to upload SARIF results
    name: Analyze
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        language: ['javascript']
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
 
      - name: Initialize CodeQL
        uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
        with:
          languages: ${{ matrix.language }}
 
      - name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
        uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v2

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.

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 github/codeql-action