depmedic / benchmarks / expressjs/express

expressjs/express - GitHub Actions cost & CI smells

From the depmedic OSS benchmark dataset. Source: public workflow YAML in expressjs/express/.github/workflows.

Workflows

Per-run $ (modeled)

$0.38

Monthly $ @ 30/day

$345.6

ci-doctor findings

Numbers are modeled: 8 minutes per priced job, 30 runs per day per workflow, 30-day month, GitHub-hosted runner rate sheet. expressjs/express's real run frequency is unknown to me. Smells, however, are real - they come from parsing the actual YAML.

Findings by rule

Rule	Hits
`missing-timeout`	7
`missing-cache`	3
`deprecated-action`	2
`matrix-overcommit`	2
`missing-concurrency`	2
`always-run-on-pr`	2

Per-workflow breakdown

Workflow	Jobs	Per-run $	Findings
`ci.yml`	3	$0.13	7
`codeql.yml`	1	$0.13	4
`legacy.yml`	2	$0.06	5
`scorecard.yml`	1	$0.06	2

Examples of what ci-doctor reports

ci.yml · WARN missing-cache
actions/setup-node has no cache option. Add 'with: cache: <ecosystem>' to skip dep re-downloads. Saves 30-90 seconds per run.

ci.yml · WARN missing-timeout
Job 'lint' has no timeout-minutes. Default is 360 (6h). A hung job can drain your CI budget.

codeql.yml · WARN missing-concurrency
No top-level concurrency block. New pushes will not cancel in-flight runs of stale commits, doubling spend on rapid-push branches.

codeql.yml · WARN missing-timeout
Job 'analyze' has no timeout-minutes. Default is 360 (6h). A hung job can drain your CI budget.

codeql.yml · INFO always-run-on-pr
codeql analysis step in job 'analyze' runs on every PR with no paths filter or condition. Consider gating it on changed files or a label.

What you can do

If you maintain expressjs/express or a similar workflow shape, three patterns probably move the most dollars per minute of work:

Add a concurrency: block with cancel-in-progress: true on every PR-triggered workflow.
Set timeout-minutes on every job (default is 6 hours).
Make sure every setup-* action sets cache: <ecosystem>.

Free CLIs that automate the audit and the pin step:

npx ci-doctor             # 14-rule audit
npx ci-doctor --fix       # auto-apply the four safe fixes
npx pin-actions           # pin every uses: ref to a SHA
npx gha-budget            # estimate per-run $ + monthly

About this dataset