Documentation Builder and Publisher workflow (microsoft/archai)

The Documentation Builder and Publisher workflow from microsoft/archai, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Documentation Builder and Publisher workflow from the microsoft/archai 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: Documentation Builder and Publisher

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
    paths:
      - "docs/**"
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
    paths:
      - "docs/**"

jobs:
  build-publish:
    name: Builds and publishes a Sphinx-based documentation
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Pulls the repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Sets up Conda with Python 3.8
        uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v2
        with:
          python-version: 3.8
          activate-environment: archai
      - name: Installs the requirements
        shell: bash -l {0}
        run: |
          sudo apt install pandoc -y
          python -m pip install --user -e .[dev]
      - name: Builds the documentation
        shell: bash -l {0}
        run: |
          cd docs
          make clean
          make html
      - name: Pushes to gh-pages branch
        if: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' }}
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: docs/_build/html/

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Documentation Builder and Publisher
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
    paths:
      - "docs/**"
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
    paths:
      - "docs/**"
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build-publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Builds and publishes a Sphinx-based documentation
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: Pulls the repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Sets up Conda with Python 3.8
        uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v2
        with:
          python-version: 3.8
          activate-environment: archai
      - name: Installs the requirements
        shell: bash -l {0}
        run: |
          sudo apt install pandoc -y
          python -m pip install --user -e .[dev]
      - name: Builds the documentation
        shell: bash -l {0}
        run: |
          cd docs
          make clean
          make html
      - name: Pushes to gh-pages branch
        if: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' }}
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: docs/_build/html/
 

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.

2 third-party actions are referenced by a movable tag. Pin them to the commit SHA (Latchkey resolves and applies this automatically) so a repointed tag cannot change what runs.

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