release workflow (testing-library/react-testing-library)

The release workflow from testing-library/react-testing-library, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: testing-library/react-testing-library.github/workflows/release.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the release workflow from the testing-library/react-testing-library 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: release
on:
  push:
    branches:
      # Match SemVer major release branches
      # e.g. "12.x" or "8.x"
      - '[0-9]+.x'
      - 'main'
      - 'next'
      - 'next-major'
      - 'beta'
      - 'alpha'
      - '!all-contributors/**'

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

permissions: {}

jobs:
  validate:
    permissions:
      contents: read #  to fetch code (actions/checkout)
    continue-on-error: ${{ matrix.react != 'latest' }}
    # ignore all-contributors PRs
    if: ${{ !contains(github.head_ref, 'all-contributors') }}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        node: [18, 24]
        react: ['18.x', latest, canary, experimental]
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: ⎔ Setup node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}

      - name: 📥 Download deps
        uses: bahmutov/npm-install@v1
        with:
          useLockFile: false

      # TODO: Can be removed if https://github.com/kentcdodds/kcd-scripts/pull/146 is released
      - name: Verify format (`npm run format` committed?)
        run: npm run format -- --check --no-write

      # as requested by the React team :)
      # https://reactjs.org/blog/2019/10/22/react-release-channels.html#using-the-next-channel-for-integration-testing
      - name: ⚛️ Setup react
        run: npm install react@${{ matrix.react }} react-dom@${{ matrix.react }}

      - name: ⚛️ Setup react types
        if: ${{ matrix.react != 'canary' && matrix.react != 'experimental' }}
        run:
          npm install @types/react@${{ matrix.react }} @types/react-dom@${{
          matrix.react }}

      - name: ▶️ Run validate script
        run: npm run validate

      - name: ⬆️ Upload coverage report
        uses: codecov/codecov-action@v5
        with:
          fail_ci_if_error: true
          flags: ${{ matrix.react }}
          token: ${{ secrets.CODECOV_TOKEN }}

  release:
    permissions:
      id-token: write # to enable use of OIDC (npm trusted publishing and provenance)
      actions: write #  to cancel/stop running workflows (styfle/cancel-workflow-action)
      contents: write #  to create release tags (cycjimmy/semantic-release-action)
      issues: write # to post release that resolves an issue (cycjimmy/semantic-release-action)
      pull-requests: write # to be able to comment on released pull requests

    needs: validate
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if:
      ${{ github.repository == 'testing-library/react-testing-library' &&
      github.event_name == 'push' }}
    steps:
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: ⎔ Setup node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 24

      - name: 📥 Download deps
        uses: bahmutov/npm-install@v1
        with:
          useLockFile: false

      - name: 🏗 Run build script
        run: npm run build

      - name: 🚀 Release
        uses: cycjimmy/semantic-release-action@v5
        with:
          semantic_version: 25
          branches: |
            [
              '+([0-9])?(.{+([0-9]),x}).x',
              'main',
              'next',
              'next-major',
              {name: 'beta', prerelease: true},
              {name: 'alpha', prerelease: true}
            ]
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

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:
    branches:
      # Match SemVer major release branches
      # e.g. "12.x" or "8.x"
      - '[0-9]+.x'
      - 'main'
      - 'next'
      - 'next-major'
      - 'beta'
      - 'alpha'
      - '!all-contributors/**'
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
permissions: {}
 
jobs:
  validate:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    permissions:
      contents: read #  to fetch code (actions/checkout)
    continue-on-error: ${{ matrix.react != 'latest' }}
    # ignore all-contributors PRs
    if: ${{ !contains(github.head_ref, 'all-contributors') }}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        node: [18, 24]
        react: ['18.x', latest, canary, experimental]
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - name: ⎔ Setup node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}
 
      - name: 📥 Download deps
        uses: bahmutov/npm-install@v1
        with:
          useLockFile: false
 
      # TODO: Can be removed if https://github.com/kentcdodds/kcd-scripts/pull/146 is released
      - name: Verify format (`npm run format` committed?)
        run: npm run format -- --check --no-write
 
      # as requested by the React team :)
      # https://reactjs.org/blog/2019/10/22/react-release-channels.html#using-the-next-channel-for-integration-testing
      - name: ⚛️ Setup react
        run: npm install react@${{ matrix.react }} react-dom@${{ matrix.react }}
 
      - name: ⚛️ Setup react types
        if: ${{ matrix.react != 'canary' && matrix.react != 'experimental' }}
        run:
          npm install @types/react@${{ matrix.react }} @types/react-dom@${{
          matrix.react }}
 
      - name: ▶️ Run validate script
        run: npm run validate
 
      - name: ⬆️ Upload coverage report
        uses: codecov/codecov-action@v5
        with:
          fail_ci_if_error: true
          flags: ${{ matrix.react }}
          token: ${{ secrets.CODECOV_TOKEN }}
 
  release:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    permissions:
      id-token: write # to enable use of OIDC (npm trusted publishing and provenance)
      actions: write #  to cancel/stop running workflows (styfle/cancel-workflow-action)
      contents: write #  to create release tags (cycjimmy/semantic-release-action)
      issues: write # to post release that resolves an issue (cycjimmy/semantic-release-action)
      pull-requests: write # to be able to comment on released pull requests
 
    needs: validate
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    if:
      ${{ github.repository == 'testing-library/react-testing-library' &&
      github.event_name == 'push' }}
    steps:
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - name: ⎔ Setup node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: 24
 
      - name: 📥 Download deps
        uses: bahmutov/npm-install@v1
        with:
          useLockFile: false
 
      - name: 🏗 Run build script
        run: npm run build
 
      - name: 🚀 Release
        uses: cycjimmy/semantic-release-action@v5
        with:
          semantic_version: 25
          branches: |
            [
              '+([0-9])?(.{+([0-9]),x}).x',
              'main',
              'next',
              'next-major',
              {name: 'beta', prerelease: true},
              {name: 'alpha', prerelease: true}
            ]
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

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.

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 2 jobs (9 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 actions/setup-node codecov/codecov-action