Publish Docs workflow (xhluca/dl-translate)

The Publish Docs workflow from xhluca/dl-translate, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Publish Docs workflow from the xhluca/dl-translate 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

name: Publish Docs

on:
  # Trigger the workflow on push or pull request,
  # but only for the main branch
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
        with:
          python-version: "3.7"
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
      - name: Publish Docs
        run: |
          mkdocs gh-deploy -t material --force

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: Publish Docs
 
on:
  # Trigger the workflow on push or pull request,
  # but only for the main branch
  push:
    branches:
      - main
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  deploy:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
        with:
          cache: 'pip'
          python-version: "3.7"
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
      - name: Publish Docs
        run: |
          mkdocs gh-deploy -t material --force
 

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• Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.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