Test workflow (lorien/grab)

The Test workflow from lorien/grab, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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

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Source: lorien/grab.github/workflows/test.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Test workflow from the lorien/grab 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: Test
on: ["push", "pull_request"]
jobs:

  without-db:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [windows-latest]
        python: ['3.13']
        network_service: ['multicurl', 'threaded']
        grab_transport: ['pycurl', 'urllib3']
        exclude:
          - network_service: 'multicurl'
            grab_transport: 'urllib3'

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: ./.github/actions/test
        with:
          python: ${{ matrix.python }}
          database_enabled: false
          os: ${{ matrix.os }}
          network_service: ${{ matrix.network_service }}
          grab_transport: ${{ matrix.grab_transport }}

  with-db:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python: ['2.7', '3.9', '3.13']
        network_service: ['multicurl', 'threaded']
        grab_transport: ['pycurl', 'urllib3']
        exclude:
          - network_service: 'multicurl'
            grab_transport: 'urllib3'

    services:
      redis:
        image: redis:7.2
        ports:
          - 6379:6379
        options: >-
          --health-cmd "redis-cli ping"
          --health-interval 5s
          --health-timeout 2s
          --health-retries 5
      mysql:
        image: mysql:8.0
        env:
          # same config must be in test_settings.py
          MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD: yes
          MYSQL_USER: github
          MYSQL_PASSWORD: github
          MYSQL_DATABASE: grab_test
        ports:
          - 3306:3306
        options: >-
          --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping -uroot -prootpassword"
          --health-interval=5s
          --health-timeout=2s
          --health-retries=10
      postgres:
        image: postgres:16
        env:
          # same config must be in test_settings.py
          POSTGRES_USER: github
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: github
          POSTGRES_DB: grab_test
        ports:
          - 5432:5432
        options: >-
          --health-cmd "pg_isready -U testuser"
          --health-interval 5s
          --health-timeout 2s
          --health-retries 10
      mongodb:
        image: mongo:7.0
        ports:
          - 27017:27017

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: ./.github/actions/test
        with:
          python: ${{ matrix.python }}
          database_enabled: true
          os: 'ubuntu-latest'
          network_service: ${{ matrix.network_service }}
          grab_transport: ${{ matrix.grab_transport }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Test
on: ["push", "pull_request"]
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
 
  without-db:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [windows-latest]
        python: ['3.13']
        network_service: ['multicurl', 'threaded']
        grab_transport: ['pycurl', 'urllib3']
        exclude:
          - network_service: 'multicurl'
            grab_transport: 'urllib3'
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: ./.github/actions/test
        with:
          python: ${{ matrix.python }}
          database_enabled: false
          os: ${{ matrix.os }}
          network_service: ${{ matrix.network_service }}
          grab_transport: ${{ matrix.grab_transport }}
 
  with-db:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python: ['2.7', '3.9', '3.13']
        network_service: ['multicurl', 'threaded']
        grab_transport: ['pycurl', 'urllib3']
        exclude:
          - network_service: 'multicurl'
            grab_transport: 'urllib3'
 
    services:
      redis:
        image: redis:7.2
        ports:
          - 6379:6379
        options: >-
          --health-cmd "redis-cli ping"
          --health-interval 5s
          --health-timeout 2s
          --health-retries 5
      mysql:
        image: mysql:8.0
        env:
          # same config must be in test_settings.py
          MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD: yes
          MYSQL_USER: github
          MYSQL_PASSWORD: github
          MYSQL_DATABASE: grab_test
        ports:
          - 3306:3306
        options: >-
          --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping -uroot -prootpassword"
          --health-interval=5s
          --health-timeout=2s
          --health-retries=10
      postgres:
        image: postgres:16
        env:
          # same config must be in test_settings.py
          POSTGRES_USER: github
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: github
          POSTGRES_DB: grab_test
        ports:
          - 5432:5432
        options: >-
          --health-cmd "pg_isready -U testuser"
          --health-interval 5s
          --health-timeout 2s
          --health-retries 10
      mongodb:
        image: mongo:7.0
        ports:
          - 27017:27017
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: ./.github/actions/test
        with:
          python: ${{ matrix.python }}
          database_enabled: true
          os: 'ubuntu-latest'
          network_service: ${{ matrix.network_service }}
          grab_transport: ${{ matrix.grab_transport }}

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 2 jobs (16 with the matrix expanded) 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