ci: use artifacts for e2e prep so job retries don't fail on cache eviction#16310
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denolfe
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Just some comment cleanup needed, looks good otherwise.
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…ction (payloadcms#16310) Switches the `e2e-prep` handoff from `actions/cache` to `actions/upload-artifact` + `actions/download-artifact`, so that re-running an individual failed E2E shard works without having to re-run the entire workflow (or push an empty commit to re-trigger CI, which is what we've been doing). This is also the pattern [recommended by GitHub](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/tutorials/store-and-share-data): cache is for dependencies reused across runs, artifacts are for passing data between jobs within a run. `e2e-prep` falls squarely into the second category. ### Why The Actions cache for this repo is permanently at its 10 GB limit, so the `e2e-prep-<sha>` entry gets evicted by LRU within a few hours of being saved. When that happens, any retry of a failed shard fails at the "Restore prepared test environment" step with `Failed to restore cache entry`, and the only recovery path is re-running the full workflow. Artifacts are scoped to the workflow run and not subject to the 10 GB cache budget, so they survive across attempts. Real example that motivated this: https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/actions/runs/24524398342/job/71809444756 ### Notes for reviewers - `include-hidden-files: true` is required because `test/node_modules` contains `.bin`, `.pnpm`, etc. Missing that flag silently produces a broken artifact. - Added an explicit "Verify prepared test environment" step with an actionable error, since `download-artifact` has no `fail-on-cache-miss` equivalent. - Left the default 90 day retention. This repo is public, so artifact storage is free and there's no reason to be aggressive. - Upload/download is slightly slower than cache (zip vs zstd), but the difference is in the order of tens of seconds on a job that takes minutes. Worth it for the reliability win. - `e2e-prep-<sha>` cache key is left behind on old runs; it will naturally age out on its own, no cleanup needed. This does not touch the separate `restore-build` cache used by `.github/actions/setup`. That one still has its own polling + full-build fallback, which is orthogonal to this change. Co-authored-by: German Jablonski <GermanJablo@users.noreply.github.com>
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Switches the
e2e-prephandoff fromactions/cachetoactions/upload-artifact+actions/download-artifact, so that re-running an individual failed E2E shard works without having to re-run the entire workflow (or push an empty commit to re-trigger CI, which is what we've been doing).This is also the pattern recommended by GitHub: cache is for dependencies reused across runs, artifacts are for passing data between jobs within a run.
e2e-prepfalls squarely into the second category.Why
The Actions cache for this repo is permanently at its 10 GB limit, so the
e2e-prep-<sha>entry gets evicted by LRU within a few hours of being saved. When that happens, any retry of a failed shard fails at the "Restore prepared test environment" step withFailed to restore cache entry, and the only recovery path is re-running the full workflow. Artifacts are scoped to the workflow run and not subject to the 10 GB cache budget, so they survive across attempts.Real example that motivated this: https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/actions/runs/24524398342/job/71809444756
Notes for reviewers
include-hidden-files: trueis required becausetest/node_modulescontains.bin,.pnpm, etc. Missing that flag silently produces a broken artifact.download-artifacthas nofail-on-cache-missequivalent.e2e-prep-<sha>cache key is left behind on old runs; it will naturally age out on its own, no cleanup needed.This does not touch the separate
restore-buildcache used by.github/actions/setup. That one still has its own polling + full-build fallback, which is orthogonal to this change.