release workflow (square/retrofit)

The release workflow from square/retrofit, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: F - at risk

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Source: square/retrofit.github/workflows/release.yamlLicense Apache-2.0View source

What it does

This is the release workflow from the square/retrofit 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: release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '**'

env:
  GRADLE_OPTS: "-Dorg.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx4g -Dorg.gradle.daemon=false -Dkotlin.incremental=false -Dorg.gradle.logging.stacktrace=full"

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: actions/setup-java@v5
        with:
          distribution: 'zulu'
          java-version-file: .github/workflows/.java-version

      - run: ./gradlew publish
        env:
          ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_mavenCentralUsername: ${{ secrets.SONATYPE_CENTRAL_USERNAME }}
          ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_mavenCentralPassword: ${{ secrets.SONATYPE_CENTRAL_PASSWORD }}
          ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_signingInMemoryKey: ${{ secrets.GPG_SECRET_KEY }}
          ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_signingInMemoryKeyPassword: ${{ secrets.GPG_SECRET_PASSPHRASE }}

      - name: Extract release notes
        id: release_notes
        uses: ffurrer2/extract-release-notes@v3

      - name: Create release
        uses: ncipollo/release-action@v1
        with:
          body: ${{ steps.release_notes.outputs.release_notes }}
          discussionCategory: Announcements

      - name: Build release website
        run: |
          ./gradlew copyWebsiteDocs
          cd website
          npm install && npm run build -- --mode release

      - name: Deploy release website
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@releases/v3
        with:
          branch: site
          folder: website/dist
          clean: true
          clean-exclude: |
            .nojekyll
            latest/**

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: release
 
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '**'
 
env:
  GRADLE_OPTS: "-Dorg.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx4g -Dorg.gradle.daemon=false -Dkotlin.incremental=false -Dorg.gradle.logging.stacktrace=full"
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  publish:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: actions/setup-java@v5
        with:
          cache: 'maven'
          distribution: 'zulu'
          java-version-file: .github/workflows/.java-version
 
      - run: ./gradlew publish
        env:
          ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_mavenCentralUsername: ${{ secrets.SONATYPE_CENTRAL_USERNAME }}
          ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_mavenCentralPassword: ${{ secrets.SONATYPE_CENTRAL_PASSWORD }}
          ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_signingInMemoryKey: ${{ secrets.GPG_SECRET_KEY }}
          ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_signingInMemoryKeyPassword: ${{ secrets.GPG_SECRET_PASSPHRASE }}
 
      - name: Extract release notes
        id: release_notes
        uses: ffurrer2/extract-release-notes@v3
 
      - name: Create release
        uses: ncipollo/release-action@v1
        with:
          body: ${{ steps.release_notes.outputs.release_notes }}
          discussionCategory: Announcements
 
      - name: Build release website
        run: |
          ./gradlew copyWebsiteDocs
          cd website
          npm install && npm run build -- --mode release
 
      - name: Deploy release website
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@releases/v3
        with:
          branch: site
          folder: website/dist
          clean: true
          clean-exclude: |
            .nojekyll
            latest/**

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.

3 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

actions/checkout actions/setup-java