Update Contributors in READMES workflow (zumerlab/snapdom)

The Update Contributors in READMES workflow from zumerlab/snapdom, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

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Source: zumerlab/snapdom.github/workflows/update-contributors.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the Update Contributors in READMES workflow from the zumerlab/snapdom 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: Update Contributors in READMES

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  update-contributors:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'

      - name: Generate contributors list
        run: node .github/scripts/update-contributors.js

      - name: Commit and push if changed
        run: |
          git config --global user.name 'github-actions[bot]'
          git config --global user.email 'github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com'
          if ! git diff --quiet; then
            git add README.md README_CN.md
            git commit -m "chore: update contributors list"
            git push
          fi

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: Update Contributors in READMES
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'
  workflow_dispatch:
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  update-contributors:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: '20'
 
      - name: Generate contributors list
        run: node .github/scripts/update-contributors.js
 
      - name: Commit and push if changed
        run: |
          git config --global user.name 'github-actions[bot]'
          git config --global user.email 'github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com'
          if ! git diff --quiet; then
            git add README.md README_CN.md
            git commit -m "chore: update contributors list"
            git push
          fi

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.

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-node