Benchmarks workflow (xarray-contrib/xarray-spatial)

The Benchmarks workflow from xarray-contrib/xarray-spatial, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: xarray-contrib/xarray-spatial.github/workflows/benchmarks.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Benchmarks workflow from the xarray-contrib/xarray-spatial 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: Benchmarks

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [labeled]
  push:
    branches: [main]

env:
  ASV_FACTOR: "1.2"

jobs:
  benchmarks:
    if: >
      (github.event_name == 'push') ||
      (github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.label.name == 'performance')
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: "3.13"

      - name: Install ASV and virtualenv
        run: pip install asv virtualenv

      - name: Configure ASV machine
        working-directory: benchmarks
        run: asv machine --yes

      - name: Run benchmarks (PR)
        if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
        working-directory: benchmarks
        run: |
          asv continuous origin/main HEAD \
            --factor $ASV_FACTOR \
            --bench "^(Slope|Proximity|Zonal|CostDistance|Focal|Rescale|Standardize|Diffusion|Dasymetric)" \
            | tee bench_output.txt

      - name: Run benchmarks (push to main)
        if: github.event_name == 'push'
        working-directory: benchmarks
        run: |
          asv run HEAD^! \
            --bench "^(Slope|Proximity|Zonal|CostDistance|Focal|Rescale|Standardize|Diffusion|Dasymetric)" \
            | tee bench_output.txt

      - name: Check for regressions
        working-directory: benchmarks
        run: |
          if grep -q "REGRESSION" bench_output.txt; then
            echo "::error::Performance regression detected (>${ASV_FACTOR}x slower)"
            cat bench_output.txt
            exit 1
          fi

      - name: Upload benchmark results
        if: always()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: benchmark-results
          path: |
            benchmarks/bench_output.txt
            benchmarks/.asv/results/

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: Benchmarks
 
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [labeled]
  push:
    branches: [main]
 
env:
  ASV_FACTOR: "1.2"
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  benchmarks:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    if: >
      (github.event_name == 'push') ||
      (github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.label.name == 'performance')
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
 
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: "3.13"
 
      - name: Install ASV and virtualenv
        run: pip install asv virtualenv
 
      - name: Configure ASV machine
        working-directory: benchmarks
        run: asv machine --yes
 
      - name: Run benchmarks (PR)
        if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
        working-directory: benchmarks
        run: |
          asv continuous origin/main HEAD \
            --factor $ASV_FACTOR \
            --bench "^(Slope|Proximity|Zonal|CostDistance|Focal|Rescale|Standardize|Diffusion|Dasymetric)" \
            | tee bench_output.txt
 
      - name: Run benchmarks (push to main)
        if: github.event_name == 'push'
        working-directory: benchmarks
        run: |
          asv run HEAD^! \
            --bench "^(Slope|Proximity|Zonal|CostDistance|Focal|Rescale|Standardize|Diffusion|Dasymetric)" \
            | tee bench_output.txt
 
      - name: Check for regressions
        working-directory: benchmarks
        run: |
          if grep -q "REGRESSION" bench_output.txt; then
            echo "::error::Performance regression detected (>${ASV_FACTOR}x slower)"
            cat bench_output.txt
            exit 1
          fi
 
      - name: Upload benchmark results
        if: always()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: benchmark-results
          path: |
            benchmarks/bench_output.txt
            benchmarks/.asv/results/

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 actions/upload-artifact