Publish lang-dot workflow (mdaines/viz-js)

The Publish lang-dot workflow from mdaines/viz-js, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Publish lang-dot workflow from the mdaines/viz-js 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

name: Publish lang-dot

on: workflow_dispatch

jobs:
  build:
    uses: ./.github/workflows/lang-dot-build.yml

  publish:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5

      - uses: actions/download-artifact@v8
        with:
          name: dist
          path: packages/lang-dot/dist

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: "24.x"
          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"

      - name: "Collect release info"
        run: |
          node scripts/collect-release-info.js packages/lang-dot >> "$GITHUB_ENV"

      - name: "Create GitHub release"
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          echo "$RELEASE_NOTES" > "${{ runner.temp }}/notes.md"
          gh release create $RELEASE_TAG --notes-file "${{ runner.temp }}/notes.md" --title "$RELEASE_TITLE"

      - run: npm install -g npm

      - run: npm publish --provenance --access public
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
        working-directory: packages/lang-dot

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: Publish lang-dot
 
on: workflow_dispatch
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    uses: ./.github/workflows/lang-dot-build.yml
 
  publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    needs: build
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: write
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
 
      - uses: actions/download-artifact@v8
        with:
          name: dist
          path: packages/lang-dot/dist
 
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: "24.x"
          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"
 
      - name: "Collect release info"
        run: |
          node scripts/collect-release-info.js packages/lang-dot >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
 
      - name: "Create GitHub release"
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          echo "$RELEASE_NOTES" > "${{ runner.temp }}/notes.md"
          gh release create $RELEASE_TAG --notes-file "${{ runner.temp }}/notes.md" --title "$RELEASE_TITLE"
 
      - run: npm install -g npm
 
      - run: npm publish --provenance --access public
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
        working-directory: packages/lang-dot
 

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.
• 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 2 jobs per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow