Tests workflow (mochajs/mocha)

The Tests workflow from mochajs/mocha, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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Source: mochajs/mocha.github/workflows/mocha.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Tests workflow from the mochajs/mocha 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: Tests

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
    paths-ignore:
      ["*.md", "docs/**", ".github/**", ".prettierignore", "AUTHORS", "LICENSE"]
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
    paths-ignore:
      ["*.md", "docs/**", ".github/**", ".prettierignore", "AUTHORS", "LICENSE"]
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, edited]
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write # for Codecov OIDC

jobs:
  lint:
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    with:
      npm-script: lint

  smoke:
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    with:
      node-versions: "20,22,24"
      npm-script: test-smoke

  test-node-lts:
    # TODO: Restore "mocha-github-actions-reporter" style reporting without relying on third party module
    # https://github.com/mochajs/mocha/issues/5183
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    needs: smoke
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        test-part:
          - interfaces
          - unit
          - integration
          - jsapi
          - requires
          - reporters
          - only
    with:
      npm-script: test-node:${{ matrix.test-part }}

  test-node-all:
    name: Test ${{ matrix.test-part }} in all environments
    permissions:
      id-token: write # for Codecov OIDC
      contents: read # for Codecov OIDC
    # TODO: Restore "mocha-github-actions-reporter" style reporting without relying on third party module
    # https://github.com/mochajs/mocha/issues/5183
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    needs: test-node-lts
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        coverage: [true]
        test-part:
          - interfaces
          - unit
          - integration
          - requires
          - reporters
          - only
        include:
          - test-part: jsapi
            coverage: false
    with:
      os: "ubuntu-latest,windows-latest"
      # We pin exact versions here per https://github.com/mochajs/mocha/issues/5052
      # Ref https://nodejs.org/en/about/previous-releases
      node-versions: "20.19.4,22.18.0,24.6.0"
      npm-script: test-node:${{ matrix.test-part }}
      coverage: ${{ matrix.coverage }}

  test-browser:
    name: Browser tests
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 20
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          persist-credentials: false
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: "22"
          cache: "npm"
      - run: npm ci --ignore-scripts
      - run: npm run test-browser
        env:
          NODE_OPTIONS: "--trace-warnings"

  tsc:
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    with:
      npm-script: tsc

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Tests
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
    paths-ignore:
      ["*.md", "docs/**", ".github/**", ".prettierignore", "AUTHORS", "LICENSE"]
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
    paths-ignore:
      ["*.md", "docs/**", ".github/**", ".prettierignore", "AUTHORS", "LICENSE"]
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, edited]
  workflow_dispatch:
 
permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write # for Codecov OIDC
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  lint:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    with:
      npm-script: lint
 
  smoke:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    with:
      node-versions: "20,22,24"
      npm-script: test-smoke
 
  test-node-lts:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    # TODO: Restore "mocha-github-actions-reporter" style reporting without relying on third party module
    # https://github.com/mochajs/mocha/issues/5183
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    needs: smoke
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        test-part:
          - interfaces
          - unit
          - integration
          - jsapi
          - requires
          - reporters
          - only
    with:
      npm-script: test-node:${{ matrix.test-part }}
 
  test-node-all:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Test ${{ matrix.test-part }} in all environments
    permissions:
      id-token: write # for Codecov OIDC
      contents: read # for Codecov OIDC
    # TODO: Restore "mocha-github-actions-reporter" style reporting without relying on third party module
    # https://github.com/mochajs/mocha/issues/5183
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    needs: test-node-lts
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        coverage: [true]
        test-part:
          - interfaces
          - unit
          - integration
          - requires
          - reporters
          - only
        include:
          - test-part: jsapi
            coverage: false
    with:
      os: "ubuntu-latest,windows-latest"
      # We pin exact versions here per https://github.com/mochajs/mocha/issues/5052
      # Ref https://nodejs.org/en/about/previous-releases
      node-versions: "20.19.4,22.18.0,24.6.0"
      npm-script: test-node:${{ matrix.test-part }}
      coverage: ${{ matrix.coverage }}
 
  test-browser:
    name: Browser tests
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    timeout-minutes: 20
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
        with:
          persist-credentials: false
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: "22"
          cache: "npm"
      - run: npm ci --ignore-scripts
      - run: npm run test-browser
        env:
          NODE_OPTIONS: "--trace-warnings"
 
  tsc:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    uses: ./.github/workflows/npm-script.yml
    with:
      npm-script: tsc

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.

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 6 jobs (17 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 actions/setup-node