CodeQL - scheduled workflow (sverweij/dependency-cruiser)

The CodeQL - scheduled workflow from sverweij/dependency-cruiser, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: A - excellent

Point runs-on at Latchkey and get job timeouts, self-healing for flaky steps, and up to 58% lower cost, applied automatically.

Grade your own workflow free or run it on Latchkey →

Source: sverweij/dependency-cruiser.github/workflows/codeql-schedule.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the CodeQL - scheduled workflow from the sverweij/dependency-cruiser 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: "CodeQL - scheduled"

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "14 3 * * 1"
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  analyze:
    name: CodeQL
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        lingos:
          [
            {
              language: javascript,
              config-file: ./.github/codeql/codeql-config-javascript.yml,
            },
            {
              language: actions,
              config-file: ./.github/codeql/codeql-config-actions.yml,
            },
          ]
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      actions: read
      contents: read
      security-events: write

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: github/codeql-action/init@v4
        with:
          languages: ${{matrix.lingos.language}}
          # See https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/code-scanning/automatically-scanning-your-code-for-vulnerabilities-and-errors/configuring-code-scanning#using-queries-in-ql-packs
          config-file: ${{matrix.lingos.config-file}}
      - uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v4

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: "CodeQL - scheduled"
 
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "14 3 * * 1"
  workflow_dispatch:
 
jobs:
  analyze:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: CodeQL
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        lingos:
          [
            {
              language: javascript,
              config-file: ./.github/codeql/codeql-config-javascript.yml,
            },
            {
              language: actions,
              config-file: ./.github/codeql/codeql-config-actions.yml,
            },
          ]
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      actions: read
      contents: read
      security-events: write
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: github/codeql-action/init@v4
        with:
          languages: ${{matrix.lingos.language}}
          # See https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/code-scanning/automatically-scanning-your-code-for-vulnerabilities-and-errors/configuring-code-scanning#using-queries-in-ql-packs
          config-file: ${{matrix.lingos.config-file}}
      - uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@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.
Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

This workflow runs 1 job (2 with the matrix expanded) 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 github/codeql-action