Release Documentation workflow (sgl-project/SpecForge)

The Release Documentation workflow from sgl-project/SpecForge, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: sgl-project/SpecForge.github/workflows/publish_docs.yamlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Release Documentation workflow from the sgl-project/SpecForge 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: Release Documentation

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
    paths:
      - "docs/**"
      - "version.txt"
  workflow_dispatch:

concurrency:
  group: release-docs-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  deploy-github-pages:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.repository == 'sgl-project/specforge' || github.repository == 'sleepcoo/SpecForge'
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.13'

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
          cache-dependency-path: docs/spec_bundle/package-lock.json

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y pandoc parallel retry
          pip install -r docs/requirements.txt

      - name: Build spec bundle dashboard
        run: |
          # Copy logos to public directory
          cp assets/logo.png docs/spec_bundle/public/logo.png
          cp docs/_static/imgs/specbundle-logo.png docs/spec_bundle/public/specbundle-logo.png
          cd docs/spec_bundle
          npm ci
          npm run build
          # Clean up node_modules to prevent Sphinx from processing them
          rm -rf node_modules
          cd ..

      - name: Build documentation
        run: |
          cd docs
          make compile
          make html
          # Copy SpecBundle to root of output directory
          mkdir -p _build/html/SpecBundle
          cp -r spec_bundle/dist/* _build/html/SpecBundle/

      - name: Add .nojekyll file
        run: |
          touch ./docs/_build/html/.nojekyll

      - name: Deploy
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v4
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: ./docs/_build/html

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Release Documentation
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
    paths:
      - "docs/**"
      - "version.txt"
  workflow_dispatch:
 
concurrency:
  group: release-docs-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  deploy-github-pages:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    if: github.repository == 'sgl-project/specforge' || github.repository == 'sleepcoo/SpecForge'
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - name: Setup Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.13'
 
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
          cache-dependency-path: docs/spec_bundle/package-lock.json
 
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y pandoc parallel retry
          pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
 
      - name: Build spec bundle dashboard
        run: |
          # Copy logos to public directory
          cp assets/logo.png docs/spec_bundle/public/logo.png
          cp docs/_static/imgs/specbundle-logo.png docs/spec_bundle/public/specbundle-logo.png
          cd docs/spec_bundle
          npm ci
          npm run build
          # Clean up node_modules to prevent Sphinx from processing them
          rm -rf node_modules
          cd ..
 
      - name: Build documentation
        run: |
          cd docs
          make compile
          make html
          # Copy SpecBundle to root of output directory
          mkdir -p _build/html/SpecBundle
          cp -r spec_bundle/dist/* _build/html/SpecBundle/
 
      - name: Add .nojekyll file
        run: |
          touch ./docs/_build/html/.nojekyll
 
      - name: Deploy
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v4
        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.
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.

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 actions/setup-node