Deploy Nightly Demo on GitHub Pages workflow (shaka-project/shaka-player)

The Deploy Nightly Demo on GitHub Pages workflow from shaka-project/shaka-player, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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Source: shaka-project/shaka-player.github/workflows/github-pages-nightly-demo.yamlLicense Apache-2.0View source

What it does

This is the Deploy Nightly Demo on GitHub Pages workflow from the shaka-project/shaka-player repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its Apache-2.0 license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

name: Deploy Nightly Demo on GitHub Pages

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    # Allows for manual triggering.
  push:
    branches:
      - main

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

jobs:
  # Build job
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          persist-credentials: false

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
          registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'

      - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
        with:
          distribution: zulu
          java-version: 21

      - uses: ./.github/workflows/custom-actions/prep-demo-for-deployment

      - name: Upload static files as artifact
        id: nightly
        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: .

  # Deploy job
  deploy:
    # Add a dependency to the build job
    needs: build

    # Grant GITHUB_TOKEN the permissions required to make a Pages deployment
    permissions:
      pages: write      # to deploy to Pages
      id-token: write   # to verify the deployment originates from an appropriate source

    # Deploy to the github-pages environment
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}

    # Specify runner + deployment step
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        id: nightly
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

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: Deploy Nightly Demo on GitHub Pages
 
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    # Allows for manual triggering.
  push:
    branches:
      - main
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  # Build job
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          persist-credentials: false
 
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 22
          registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
 
      - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
        with:
          distribution: zulu
          java-version: 21
 
      - uses: ./.github/workflows/custom-actions/prep-demo-for-deployment
 
      - name: Upload static files as artifact
        id: nightly
        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: .
 
  # Deploy job
  deploy:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    # Add a dependency to the build job
    needs: build
 
    # Grant GITHUB_TOKEN the permissions required to make a Pages deployment
    permissions:
      pages: write      # to deploy to Pages
      id-token: write   # to verify the deployment originates from an appropriate source
 
    # Deploy to the github-pages environment
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
 
    # Specify runner + deployment step
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        id: nightly
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

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.

This workflow runs 2 jobs 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-node actions/setup-java actions/upload-pages-artifact actions/deploy-pages