Sphinx documentation workflow (rezoo/movis)

The Sphinx documentation workflow from rezoo/movis, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Sphinx documentation workflow from the rezoo/movis 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: Sphinx documentation

on:
  push:
    branches: [main] # branch to trigger deployment

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout codes
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Set up Python 3.10
        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
        with:
          python-version: "3.10"
      - name: Setup FFmpeg
        uses: FedericoCarboni/setup-ffmpeg@v2
      - name: Install packages
        run: |
          sudo apt-get install -y libgl1-mesa-dev libglib2.0-0
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install -U pip
          python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
          python -m pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
      - name: Install repository
        run: |
          python -m pip install -e .
      - name: Build documentation
        run: |
          cd docs
          make html
      - name: Upload artifacts
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: html-docs
          path: docs/build/html/
      - name: Deploy
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
        if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: docs/build/html

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: Sphinx documentation
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [main] # branch to trigger deployment
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout codes
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Set up Python 3.10
        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: "3.10"
      - name: Setup FFmpeg
        uses: FedericoCarboni/setup-ffmpeg@v2
      - name: Install packages
        run: |
          sudo apt-get install -y libgl1-mesa-dev libglib2.0-0
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install -U pip
          python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
          python -m pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
      - name: Install repository
        run: |
          python -m pip install -e .
      - name: Build documentation
        run: |
          cd docs
          make html
      - name: Upload artifacts
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: html-docs
          path: docs/build/html/
      - name: Deploy
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
        if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: docs/build/html

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.

2 third-party actions are referenced by a movable tag. Pin them 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