Read the Docs Pull Request Preview workflow (simonw/shot-scraper)

The Read the Docs Pull Request Preview workflow from simonw/shot-scraper, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Read the Docs Pull Request Preview workflow from the simonw/shot-scraper 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

name: Read the Docs Pull Request Preview
on:
  pull_request_target:
    types:
      - opened

permissions:
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  documentation-links:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: readthedocs/actions/preview@v1
        with:
          project-slug: "shot-scraper"

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Read the Docs Pull Request Preview
on:
  pull_request_target:
    types:
      - opened
 
permissions:
  pull-requests: write
 
jobs:
  documentation-links:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: readthedocs/actions/preview@v1
        with:
          project-slug: "shot-scraper"
 

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.

This workflow runs 1 job per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.