Build and Deploy workflow (ObjTube/front-end-roadmap)

The Build and Deploy workflow from ObjTube/front-end-roadmap, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Build and Deploy workflow from the ObjTube/front-end-roadmap 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: Build and Deploy
on: [push]
jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout 🛎️
        uses: actions/checkout@v2 # If you're using actions/checkout@v2 you must set persist-credentials to false in most cases for the deployment to work correctly.
        with:
          persist-credentials: false

      - name: Install and Build 🔧 # This example project is built using npm and outputs the result to the 'build' folder. Replace with the commands required to build your project, or remove this step entirely if your site is pre-built.
        run: |
          npm install
          npm run build
        env:
          CI: false

      - name: Deploy 🚀
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@releases/v3
        with:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          BRANCH: gh-pages # The branch the action should deploy to.
          FOLDER: build # The folder the action should deploy.

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Build and Deploy
on: [push]
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: Checkout 🛎️
        uses: actions/checkout@v2 # If you're using actions/checkout@v2 you must set persist-credentials to false in most cases for the deployment to work correctly.
        with:
          persist-credentials: false
 
      - name: Install and Build 🔧 # This example project is built using npm and outputs the result to the 'build' folder. Replace with the commands required to build your project, or remove this step entirely if your site is pre-built.
        run: |
          npm install
          npm run build
        env:
          CI: false
 
      - name: Deploy 🚀
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@releases/v3
        with:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          BRANCH: gh-pages # The branch the action should deploy to.
          FOLDER: build # The folder the action should deploy.
 

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.

1 third-party action is referenced by a movable tag. Pin it to the commit SHA (Latchkey resolves and applies this automatically) so a repointed tag cannot change what runs.

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