Prepare release workflow (mirumee/ariadne)

The Prepare release workflow from mirumee/ariadne, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: mirumee/ariadne.github/workflows/prepare_release.ymlLicense BSD-3-ClauseView source

What it does

This is the Prepare release workflow from the mirumee/ariadne repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its BSD-3-Clause license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

name: Prepare release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'
  workflow_call:
  workflow_dispatch:

env:
  PYTHONUNBUFFERED: "1"
  FORCE_COLOR: "1"

jobs:
  build:
    uses: ./.github/workflows/build.yml
    permissions:
      contents: read
      id-token: write # IMPORTANT: mandatory for sigstore in build.yml

  create-release:
    needs:
      - build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: read
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Generate release notes
        id: release-notes
        uses: orhun/git-cliff-action@v4
        with:
          config: cliff.toml
          args: --latest --strip all
        env:
          OUTPUT: RELEASE_NOTES.md
          GITHUB_REPO: ${{ github.repository }}
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Download all the dists
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: python-package-distributions
          path: dist/

      - name: Release
        id: create-draft-release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
        with:
          files: |
            ./dist/*
          draft: true
          body_path: RELEASE_NOTES.md

      - name: Summary
        run: |
          echo "# Release summary" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
          echo "Url: ${{ steps.create-draft-release.outputs.url }}" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
          echo "You can now publish the release on GitHub" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Prepare release
 
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'
  workflow_call:
  workflow_dispatch:
 
env:
  PYTHONUNBUFFERED: "1"
  FORCE_COLOR: "1"
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    uses: ./.github/workflows/build.yml
    permissions:
      contents: read
      id-token: write # IMPORTANT: mandatory for sigstore in build.yml
 
  create-release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    needs:
      - build
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: read
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
 
      - name: Generate release notes
        id: release-notes
        uses: orhun/git-cliff-action@v4
        with:
          config: cliff.toml
          args: --latest --strip all
        env:
          OUTPUT: RELEASE_NOTES.md
          GITHUB_REPO: ${{ github.repository }}
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 
      - name: Download all the dists
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: python-package-distributions
          path: dist/
 
      - name: Release
        id: create-draft-release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
        with:
          files: |
            ./dist/*
          draft: true
          body_path: RELEASE_NOTES.md
 
      - name: Summary
        run: |
          echo "# Release summary" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
          echo "Url: ${{ steps.create-draft-release.outputs.url }}" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
          echo "You can now publish the release on GitHub" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY

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.

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

actions/checkout actions/download-artifact softprops/action-gh-release