Release workflow (preactjs/preact-cli)

The Release workflow from preactjs/preact-cli, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Release workflow from the preactjs/preact-cli 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: Release

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

jobs:
  release:
    name: Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repo
        uses: actions/checkout@master
        with:
          # This makes Actions fetch all Git history so that Changesets can generate changelogs with the correct commits
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Setup Node.js 14.x
        uses: actions/setup-node@master
        with:
          node-version: 14.x

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: yarn

      - name: Create Release Pull Request or Publish to npm
        uses: changesets/action@master
        with:
          # This expects you to have a script called release which does a build for your packages and calls changeset publish
          publish: yarn release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.REPO_SCOPED_TOKEN }}
          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PREACT_NPM_TOKEN }}

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: Release
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: Release
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repo
        uses: actions/checkout@master
        with:
          # This makes Actions fetch all Git history so that Changesets can generate changelogs with the correct commits
          fetch-depth: 0
 
      - name: Setup Node.js 14.x
        uses: actions/setup-node@master
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 14.x
 
      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: yarn
 
      - name: Create Release Pull Request or Publish to npm
        uses: changesets/action@master
        with:
          # This expects you to have a script called release which does a build for your packages and calls changeset publish
          publish: yarn release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.REPO_SCOPED_TOKEN }}
          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PREACT_NPM_TOKEN }}
 

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.
• 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.

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.

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