Links workflow (microsoft/Web-Dev-For-Beginners)

The Links workflow from microsoft/Web-Dev-For-Beginners, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Links workflow from the microsoft/Web-Dev-For-Beginners 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: Links

on:
  repository_dispatch:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    - cron: "00 18 * * 0"

jobs:
  linkChecker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write # required for peter-evans/create-issue-from-file
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Link Checker
        id: lychee
        uses: lycheeverse/lychee-action@v2
        with:
          fail: false

      - name: Create Issue From File
        if: steps.lychee.outputs.exit_code != 0
        uses: peter-evans/create-issue-from-file@v5
        with:
          title: Link Checker Report
          content-filepath: ./lychee/out.md
          labels: report, automated issue

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Links
 
on:
  repository_dispatch:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    - cron: "00 18 * * 0"
 
jobs:
  linkChecker:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      issues: write # required for peter-evans/create-issue-from-file
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - name: Link Checker
        id: lychee
        uses: lycheeverse/lychee-action@v2
        with:
          fail: false
 
      - name: Create Issue From File
        if: steps.lychee.outputs.exit_code != 0
        uses: peter-evans/create-issue-from-file@v5
        with:
          title: Link Checker Report
          content-filepath: ./lychee/out.md
          labels: report, automated issue
 

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.
• 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.

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