Code Analysis workflow (Unidata/siphon)

The Code Analysis workflow from Unidata/siphon, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Code Analysis workflow from the Unidata/siphon repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its BSD-3-Clause license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

name: "Code Analysis"

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

on:
  push:
    branches: [main, ]
  pull_request:
    # The branches below must be a subset of the branches above
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - '**.py'
      - '.github/codeql/**'
      - '.github/workflows/code-analysis.yml'

  schedule:
    - cron: '0 8 * * 6'

permissions:
  contents: read
  security-events: write

jobs:
  CodeQL:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - name: Checkout repository
      uses: actions/checkout@v7

    - name: Initialize CodeQL
      uses: github/codeql-action/init@v4
      with:
        config-file: ./.github/codeql/codeql-config.yml

    - name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
      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: "Code Analysis"
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow}}-${{ github.head_ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [main, ]
  pull_request:
    # The branches below must be a subset of the branches above
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - '**.py'
      - '.github/codeql/**'
      - '.github/workflows/code-analysis.yml'
 
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 8 * * 6'
 
permissions:
  contents: read
  security-events: write
 
jobs:
  CodeQL:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    steps:
    - name: Checkout repository
      uses: actions/checkout@v7
 
    - name: Initialize CodeQL
      uses: github/codeql-action/init@v4
      with:
        config-file: ./.github/codeql/codeql-config.yml
 
    - name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
      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 per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow