Doc Check Links workflow (pytest-dev/pytest)

The Doc Check Links workflow from pytest-dev/pytest, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Doc Check Links workflow from the pytest-dev/pytest 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: Doc Check Links

on:
  schedule:
    # At 00:00 on Sunday.
    # https://crontab.guru
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'
  workflow_dispatch:

# Set permissions at the job level.
permissions: {}

jobs:
  doc-check-links:
    if: github.repository_owner == 'pytest-dev'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          persist-credentials: false

      - name: Setup Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@ece7cb06caefa5fff74198d8649806c4678c61a1 # v6.3.0
        with:
          python-version: "3.13"
          cache: pip

      - name: Install tox
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install tox

      - name: Run sphinx linkcheck via tox
        run: tox -e docs-checklinks

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Doc Check Links
 
on:
  schedule:
    # At 00:00 on Sunday.
    # https://crontab.guru
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'
  workflow_dispatch:
 
# Set permissions at the job level.
permissions: {}
 
jobs:
  doc-check-links:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    if: github.repository_owner == 'pytest-dev'
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          persist-credentials: false
 
      - name: Setup Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@ece7cb06caefa5fff74198d8649806c4678c61a1 # v6.3.0
        with:
          python-version: "3.13"
          cache: pip
 
      - name: Install tox
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install tox
 
      - name: Run sphinx linkcheck via tox
        run: tox -e docs-checklinks
 

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.
• 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