Test workflow (nkanaev/yarr)

The Test workflow from nkanaev/yarr, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Test workflow from the nkanaev/yarr 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: Test

on: workflow_call

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    env:
      YARR_POSTGRES_TEST_IMAGE: postgres:17-alpine

    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v6

    - name: Set up Go
      uses: actions/setup-go@v6
      with:
        go-version-file: 'go.mod'

    - name: Setup Node
      uses: actions/setup-node@v6

    - name: Install dependencies
      run: npm ci

    - name: Run tests
      run: make test

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Estimated ~20% faster on cache hits, plus fewer wasted runs and a safer supply chain. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

name: Test
 
on: workflow_call
 
jobs:
  test:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    env:
      YARR_POSTGRES_TEST_IMAGE: postgres:17-alpine
 
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v6
 
    - name: Set up Go
      uses: actions/setup-go@v6
      with:
        go-version-file: 'go.mod'
 
    - name: Setup Node
      uses: actions/setup-node@v6
      with:
        cache: 'npm'
 
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: npm ci
 
    - name: Run tests
      run: make test
 

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.
• Cache dependency installs on the setup step so they are served from cache.
• 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 per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow