CI workflow (NCAR/wrf-python)

The CI workflow from NCAR/wrf-python, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: NCAR/wrf-python.github/workflows/ci.ymlLicense Apache-2.0View source

What it does

This is the CI workflow from the NCAR/wrf-python repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its Apache-2.0 license.

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

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

name: CI
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - develop
  pull_request:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *' # Daily “At 00:00”

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  test:
    name: Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}, ${{ matrix.os }}
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    defaults:
      run:
        shell: bash -l {0}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os: [ "ubuntu-latest", "macos-latest", "macos-14" ]
        python-version: [ "3.10", "3.11", "3.12", "3.13" ]
    steps:
      - name: checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: environment setup
        uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@8ee1f361103df19b6f8c8655fd3967a8ecb162d5 # v4.0.1
        with:
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
          channels: conda-forge
          environment-file: build_envs/environment.yml
      - name: build WRF-Python
        run: |
          python -m pip install build
          python -m build .
          python -m pip install dist/wrf*.whl
      - name: run tests
        run: |
          cd test/ci_tests
          python utests.py
      - name: check import
        if: failure()
        run: |
          python -m pip show wrf-python
          python -m pip show --files wrf-python
          prefix="$(python -m pip show --files wrf-python | grep Location: | cut -f2 -d" ")"
          echo "Site-packages directory is ${prefix}"
          cd "${prefix}"
          installed_files="$(python -m pip show --files wrf-python | grep -v -E -e '^[-a-zA-Z]+:')"
          ls -l ${installed_files}
          file ${installed_files}
          python -vvv -dd -c "import wrf"
          ldd $(echo ${installed_files} | grep -F -v -e ".py" -e ".dist-info")

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: CI
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - develop
  pull_request:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *' # Daily “At 00:00”
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  test:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}, ${{ matrix.os }}
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    defaults:
      run:
        shell: bash -l {0}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os: [ "ubuntu-latest", "macos-latest", "macos-14" ]
        python-version: [ "3.10", "3.11", "3.12", "3.13" ]
    steps:
      - name: checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: environment setup
        uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@8ee1f361103df19b6f8c8655fd3967a8ecb162d5 # v4.0.1
        with:
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
          channels: conda-forge
          environment-file: build_envs/environment.yml
      - name: build WRF-Python
        run: |
          python -m pip install build
          python -m build .
          python -m pip install dist/wrf*.whl
      - name: run tests
        run: |
          cd test/ci_tests
          python utests.py
      - name: check import
        if: failure()
        run: |
          python -m pip show wrf-python
          python -m pip show --files wrf-python
          prefix="$(python -m pip show --files wrf-python | grep Location: | cut -f2 -d" ")"
          echo "Site-packages directory is ${prefix}"
          cd "${prefix}"
          installed_files="$(python -m pip show --files wrf-python | grep -v -E -e '^[-a-zA-Z]+:')"
          ls -l ${installed_files}
          file ${installed_files}
          python -vvv -dd -c "import wrf"
          ldd $(echo ${installed_files} | grep -F -v -e ".py" -e ".dist-info")

What changed

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 1 job (12 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