Publish to npm workflow (patriksimek/vm2)
The Publish to npm workflow from patriksimek/vm2, explained and optimized by Latchkey.
CI health: A - excellent
Point runs-on at Latchkey and get job timeouts, self-healing for flaky steps, and up to 58% lower cost, applied automatically.
What it does
This is the Publish to npm workflow from the patriksimek/vm2 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: Publish to npm
on:
release:
types: [created]
workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
test:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
permissions:
contents: read
timeout-minutes: 10
strategy:
matrix:
node-version: [26, 25, 24, 22, 20]
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Setup Node
uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
cache: 'npm'
- name: Install dependencies
run: npm ci
- name: Run unit tests
run: npm test
publish:
needs: test
permissions:
id-token: write
contents: read
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Setup Node
uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: 24
registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
cache: 'npm'
- name: Publish to npm
run: npm publish --access public
The same workflow, on Latchkey
Removes redundant runs and caps runaway jobs. Added and changed lines are highlighted.
name: Publish to npm on: release: types: [created] workflow_dispatch: jobs: test: runs-on: latchkey-small permissions: contents: read timeout-minutes: 10 strategy: matrix: node-version: [26, 25, 24, 22, 20] steps: - name: Checkout uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: Setup Node uses: actions/setup-node@v4 with: node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }} cache: 'npm' - name: Install dependencies run: npm ci - name: Run unit tests run: npm test publish: timeout-minutes: 30 needs: test permissions: id-token: write contents: read runs-on: latchkey-small steps: - name: Checkout uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: Setup Node uses: actions/setup-node@v4 with: node-version: 24 registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org' cache: 'npm' - name: Publish to npm run: npm publish --access public
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 useslatchkey-small; pick the runner size that fits the job. - 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 2 jobs (6 with the matrix expanded) per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.