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Build Frontend workflow (stanford-crfm/helm)

The Build Frontend workflow from stanford-crfm/helm, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

F

CI health: F - at risk

Point runs-on at Latchkey and get caching, run de-duplication, job timeouts, SHA-pinned actions, self-healing for flaky steps, and up to 58% lower cost, applied automatically.

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Source: stanford-crfm/helm.github/workflows/build-frontend.ymlLicense Apache-2.0View source

What it does

This is the Build Frontend workflow from the stanford-crfm/helm 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)
# Build the frontend from source, and open a pull request to commit the build artifacts.
# This allows Python users to use the React frontend without installing and running Node.
name: Build Frontend

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - 'main'
    paths:
      - 'helm-frontend/**'
      - '.github/workflows/build-frontend.yml'

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - name: Use Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v4
      with:
        node-version: '18'
    - name: Install Yarn
      working-directory: ./helm-frontend
      run: npm install --global yarn
    - name: Install dependencies
      working-directory: ./helm-frontend
      run: yarn install
    - name: Build app
      working-directory: ./helm-frontend
      run: yarn build --outDir '../src/helm/benchmark/static_build' --emptyOutDir
    - name: Write README.md
      run: echo -e '# Frontend Build\n\nThis directory is automatically generated by GitHub Actions and contains a static site built from helm-frontend. Do not modify this directory!' > src/helm/benchmark/static_build/README.md
    - name: Git add
      run: git add --force src/helm/benchmark/static_build
    - name: Create pull request
      uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
      with:
        commit-message: Build frontend
        branch: actions/build-frontend
        delete-branch: true
        title: 'Build frontend'
        body: Auto-generated from GitHub Actions.

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.

# Build the frontend from source, and open a pull request to commit the build artifacts.
# This allows Python users to use the React frontend without installing and running Node.
name: Build Frontend
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - 'main'
    paths:
      - 'helm-frontend/**'
      - '.github/workflows/build-frontend.yml'
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  build:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - name: Use Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v4
      with:
        cache: 'npm'
        node-version: '18'
    - name: Install Yarn
      working-directory: ./helm-frontend
      run: npm install --global yarn
    - name: Install dependencies
      working-directory: ./helm-frontend
      run: yarn install
    - name: Build app
      working-directory: ./helm-frontend
      run: yarn build --outDir '../src/helm/benchmark/static_build' --emptyOutDir
    - name: Write README.md
      run: echo -e '# Frontend Build\n\nThis directory is automatically generated by GitHub Actions and contains a static site built from helm-frontend. Do not modify this directory!' > src/helm/benchmark/static_build/README.md
    - name: Git add
      run: git add --force src/helm/benchmark/static_build
    - name: Create pull request
      uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
      with:
        commit-message: Build frontend
        branch: actions/build-frontend
        delete-branch: true
        title: 'Build frontend'
        body: Auto-generated from GitHub Actions.
 

What changed

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:

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