Cleanup cache workflow (zen-browser/desktop)

The Cleanup cache workflow from zen-browser/desktop, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Cleanup cache workflow from the zen-browser/desktop repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its MPL-2.0 license.

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

The workflow

name: Cleanup cache
on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  cleanup:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: write-all
    steps:
      - name: Cleanup
        run: |
          echo "Fetching list of cache key"
          cacheKeysForPR=$(gh cache list --limit 1000 --json id --jq '.[].id')

          ## Setting this to not fail the workflow while deleting cache keys.
          set +e
          echo "Deleting caches..."
          for cacheKey in $cacheKeysForPR
          do
              gh cache delete $cacheKey
          done
          echo "Done"
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
          GH_REPO: ${{ github.repository }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Cleanup cache
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
 
jobs:
  cleanup:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions: write-all
    steps:
      - name: Cleanup
        run: |
          echo "Fetching list of cache key"
          cacheKeysForPR=$(gh cache list --limit 1000 --json id --jq '.[].id')
 
          ## Setting this to not fail the workflow while deleting cache keys.
          set +e
          echo "Deleting caches..."
          for cacheKey in $cacheKeysForPR
          do
              gh cache delete $cacheKey
          done
          echo "Done"
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
          GH_REPO: ${{ github.repository }}
 

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.