NPM Publish workflow (koajs/koa)

The NPM Publish workflow from koajs/koa, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

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Source: koajs/koa.github/workflows/npm-publish.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the NPM Publish workflow from the koajs/koa 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: NPM Publish

# Trigger when tags matching semver format are pushed, or manually via workflow_dispatch.
# Manual triggers allow selecting a specific tag to publish (e.g. tags from the v2.x branch).
#
# Patterns match common semver formats:
#   - v1.0.0 (standard)
#   - v1.0.0-alpha (pre-release)
#   - v1.0.0-beta.1 (pre-release with number)
#
# Note: GitHub Actions uses glob patterns (not full regex), which limits
# complex semver matching. These patterns cover most npm publishing scenarios.
# For complex dotted pre-releases (v1.0.0-alpha.beta.1), use simpler formats
# like v1.0.0-alphabeta1 or create the workflow manually.
"on":
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+'
      - 'v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+-[a-zA-Z0-9]+'
      - 'v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+-[a-zA-Z0-9]+.[0-9]+'
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      tag:
        description: 'Git tag to checkout and publish (e.g. v2.15.4)'
        required: true
        type: string

# Permissions for NPM trusted publishing with provenance
permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd # v5
        with:
          ref: ${{ inputs.tag || github.ref }}
      
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@48b55a011bda9f5d6aeb4c2d9c7362e8dae4041e #v6
        with:
          node-version: 24

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      
      - name: Publish to NPM
        run: npm publish

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: NPM Publish
 
# Trigger when tags matching semver format are pushed, or manually via workflow_dispatch.
# Manual triggers allow selecting a specific tag to publish (e.g. tags from the v2.x branch).
#
# Patterns match common semver formats:
#   - v1.0.0 (standard)
#   - v1.0.0-alpha (pre-release)
#   - v1.0.0-beta.1 (pre-release with number)
#
# Note: GitHub Actions uses glob patterns (not full regex), which limits
# complex semver matching. These patterns cover most npm publishing scenarios.
# For complex dotted pre-releases (v1.0.0-alpha.beta.1), use simpler formats
# like v1.0.0-alphabeta1 or create the workflow manually.
"on":
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+'
      - 'v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+-[a-zA-Z0-9]+'
      - 'v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+-[a-zA-Z0-9]+.[0-9]+'
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      tag:
        description: 'Git tag to checkout and publish (e.g. v2.15.4)'
        required: true
        type: string
 
# Permissions for NPM trusted publishing with provenance
permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd # v5
        with:
          ref: ${{ inputs.tag || github.ref }}
      
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@48b55a011bda9f5d6aeb4c2d9c7362e8dae4041e #v6
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 24
 
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      
      - name: Publish to NPM
        run: npm publish

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-node