prepare release pr workflow (pytest-dev/pytest)

The prepare release pr workflow from pytest-dev/pytest, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: pytest-dev/pytest.github/workflows/prepare-release-pr.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the prepare release pr 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

workflow (.yml)

name: prepare release pr

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      branch:
        description: 'Branch to base the release from'
        required: true
        default: ''
      major:
        description: 'Major release? (yes/no)'
        required: true
        default: 'no'
      prerelease:
        description: 'Prerelease (ex: rc1). Leave empty if not a pre-release.'
        required: false
        default: ''

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

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
        # persist-credentials is needed in order for us to push the release branch.
        persist-credentials: true

    - name: Set up Python
      uses: actions/setup-python@ece7cb06caefa5fff74198d8649806c4678c61a1 # v6.3.0
      with:
        python-version: "3.13"

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

    - name: Prepare release PR (minor/patch release)
      if: github.event.inputs.major == 'no'
      env:
        BRANCH: ${{ github.event.inputs.branch }}
        PRERELEASE: ${{ github.event.inputs.prerelease }}
        GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
      run: |
        tox -e prepare-release-pr -- "$BRANCH" --prerelease="$PRERELEASE"

    - name: Prepare release PR (major release)
      if: github.event.inputs.major == 'yes'
      env:
        BRANCH: ${{ github.event.inputs.branch }}
        PRERELEASE: ${{ github.event.inputs.prerelease }}
        GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
      run: |
        tox -e prepare-release-pr -- "$BRANCH" --major --prerelease="$PRERELEASE"

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: prepare release pr
 
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      branch:
        description: 'Branch to base the release from'
        required: true
        default: ''
      major:
        description: 'Major release? (yes/no)'
        required: true
        default: 'no'
      prerelease:
        description: 'Prerelease (ex: rc1). Leave empty if not a pre-release.'
        required: false
        default: ''
 
# Set permissions at the job level.
permissions: {}
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write
 
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7.0.0
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
        # persist-credentials is needed in order for us to push the release branch.
        persist-credentials: true
 
    - name: Set up Python
      uses: actions/setup-python@ece7cb06caefa5fff74198d8649806c4678c61a1 # v6.3.0
      with:
        cache: 'pip'
        python-version: "3.13"
 
    - name: Install tox
      run: |
        python -m pip install --upgrade pip
        pip install tox
 
    - name: Prepare release PR (minor/patch release)
      if: github.event.inputs.major == 'no'
      env:
        BRANCH: ${{ github.event.inputs.branch }}
        PRERELEASE: ${{ github.event.inputs.prerelease }}
        GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
      run: |
        tox -e prepare-release-pr -- "$BRANCH" --prerelease="$PRERELEASE"
 
    - name: Prepare release PR (major release)
      if: github.event.inputs.major == 'yes'
      env:
        BRANCH: ${{ github.event.inputs.branch }}
        PRERELEASE: ${{ github.event.inputs.prerelease }}
        GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
      run: |
        tox -e prepare-release-pr -- "$BRANCH" --major --prerelease="$PRERELEASE"

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

actions/checkout actions/setup-python