Copilot Setup Steps workflow (TryGhost/Ghost)

The Copilot Setup Steps workflow from TryGhost/Ghost, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: C - fair

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Source: TryGhost/Ghost.github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Copilot Setup Steps workflow from the TryGhost/Ghost 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: "Copilot Setup Steps"

# This workflow configures the environment for GitHub Copilot Agent with gh-aw MCP server
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    paths:
      - .github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.yml

jobs:
  # The job MUST be called 'copilot-setup-steps' to be recognized by GitHub Copilot Agent
  copilot-setup-steps:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    # Set minimal permissions for setup steps
    # Copilot Agent receives its own token with appropriate permissions
    permissions:
      contents: read

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@df4cb1c069e1874edd31b4311f1884172cec0e10 # v6.0.3
      - name: Install gh-aw extension
        uses: github/gh-aw/actions/setup-cli@eed4304d8740f0593f2797276cb8299d228ffd9b # v0.81.6
        with:
          version: v0.49.3

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: "Copilot Setup Steps"
 
# This workflow configures the environment for GitHub Copilot Agent with gh-aw MCP server
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    paths:
      - .github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.yml
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  # The job MUST be called 'copilot-setup-steps' to be recognized by GitHub Copilot Agent
  copilot-setup-steps:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    # Set minimal permissions for setup steps
    # Copilot Agent receives its own token with appropriate permissions
    permissions:
      contents: read
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@df4cb1c069e1874edd31b4311f1884172cec0e10 # v6.0.3
      - name: Install gh-aw extension
        uses: github/gh-aw/actions/setup-cli@eed4304d8740f0593f2797276cb8299d228ffd9b # v0.81.6
        with:
          version: v0.49.3

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.
Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

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