Automated Tests workflow (whitesmith/hawkpost)

The Automated Tests workflow from whitesmith/hawkpost, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

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Source: whitesmith/hawkpost.github/workflows/automated-tests.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Automated Tests workflow from the whitesmith/hawkpost 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: Automated Tests

on:
  push:
    branches: ["master"]
  pull_request:
    branches: ["master"]

env:
  DB_HOST: localhost
  DB_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.DB_PASSWORD }}
  SECRET_KEY: ${{ secrets.SECRET_KEY }}
  USERNAME: root

jobs:
  unittest:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python-version: [3.9]

    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:16
        env:
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
          POSTGRES_DB: hawkpost_dev
        options: >-
          --health-cmd pg_isready
          --health-interval 10s
          --health-timeout 5s
          --health-retries 5
        ports:
          - 5432:5432
      redis:
        image: redis:7
        ports:
          - 6379:6379

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
        uses: actions/setup-python@v3
        with:
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip pipenv
          pipenv install --dev
      - name: Collect Static assets
        run: |
          pipenv run python manage.py collectstatic --no-input
      - name: Run Tests
        run: |
          pipenv run python manage.py test

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: Automated Tests
 
on:
  push:
    branches: ["master"]
  pull_request:
    branches: ["master"]
 
env:
  DB_HOST: localhost
  DB_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.DB_PASSWORD }}
  SECRET_KEY: ${{ secrets.SECRET_KEY }}
  USERNAME: root
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  unittest:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python-version: [3.9]
 
    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:16
        env:
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
          POSTGRES_DB: hawkpost_dev
        options: >-
          --health-cmd pg_isready
          --health-interval 10s
          --health-timeout 5s
          --health-retries 5
        ports:
          - 5432:5432
      redis:
        image: redis:7
        ports:
          - 6379:6379
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
        uses: actions/setup-python@v3
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip pipenv
          pipenv install --dev
      - name: Collect Static assets
        run: |
          pipenv run python manage.py collectstatic --no-input
      - name: Run Tests
        run: |
          pipenv run python manage.py test

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.
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.

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 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 actions/setup-python