Before: e2e \`needs: [frontend]\` waited for the frontend job to upload
a build artifact, then downloaded it. With multiple runners this means
the third runner sat idle for ~6 min while frontend ran, then started
e2e — total wall-clock max(backend, frontend+e2e) ≈ 11 min.
After: e2e builds its own frontend (npm ci + npm run build are already
in the job; just dropped the artifact download step and added the
build). e2e starts immediately on a free runner. Adds ~1-2 min to the
e2e job duration but removes ~5 min of waiting and eliminates the
cross-job artifact mechanism entirely.
Side benefit: no more \`actions/upload-artifact\` v3/v4 GHES headaches
on the cross-job handoff. The \`if: always()\` upload of the
playwright-report at the end of e2e is kept (failure report retrieval
is still useful), but it's a leaf-output, not a dependency.
Net wall-clock: max(backend=9m, frontend=6m, e2e=7m) ≈ 9 min on the
3-runner setup, down from ~11 min.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Michael Chihlas
261814ae65