devops: use Playwright Docker image for unit test job #13

New Issue

marcel · 2026-03-19T17:10:32+01:00

marcel commented

2026-03-19 17:10:32 +01:00

Problem

The unit test job runs on ubuntu-latest and always pays the cost of installing Playwright system packages via apt (npx playwright install-deps chromium), even on a cache hit. OS packages can't be cached — so every run downloads and installs libglib, libnss, libatk, and friends regardless.

This makes the unit test job consistently slow and adds unnecessary network I/O on every push.

Solution

Switch the unit-tests job to run inside the official Playwright Docker container image. The image ships with Chromium and all system dependencies pre-installed — no install or cache steps needed at all.

jobs:
  unit-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.51.1-noble

Changes required

Add container: directive to the unit-tests job pointing to a pinned Playwright image version
Remove the Install Playwright Chromium + system deps step
Remove the Install Playwright system deps (browser binary already cached) step
Remove the Cache Playwright browsers step (no longer needed)
Keep the Cache node_modules step (still useful)
Remove actions/setup-node — the Playwright image already ships with Node.js
Pin the image version to match the Playwright version in package.json to avoid browser/driver mismatches

Notes

The E2E job is unaffected — it needs Docker socket access which conflicts with running inside a container
Image pulls are cached by the Docker daemon on the runner host, so the first pull is slow but subsequent runs are fast
Check frontend/package.json for the exact Playwright version to match the image tag

Acceptance criteria

Unit test job no longer runs any playwright install or install-deps commands
Unit tests still pass
Job runtime is measurably shorter than before

## Problem The unit test job runs on `ubuntu-latest` and always pays the cost of installing Playwright system packages via apt (`npx playwright install-deps chromium`), even on a cache hit. OS packages can't be cached — so every run downloads and installs libglib, libnss, libatk, and friends regardless. This makes the unit test job consistently slow and adds unnecessary network I/O on every push. ## Solution Switch the `unit-tests` job to run inside the official Playwright Docker container image. The image ships with Chromium and all system dependencies pre-installed — no install or cache steps needed at all. ```yaml jobs: unit-tests: runs-on: ubuntu-latest container: image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.51.1-noble ``` ## Changes required - Add `container:` directive to the `unit-tests` job pointing to a pinned Playwright image version - Remove the `Install Playwright Chromium + system deps` step - Remove the `Install Playwright system deps (browser binary already cached)` step - Remove the `Cache Playwright browsers` step (no longer needed) - Keep the `Cache node_modules` step (still useful) - Remove `actions/setup-node` — the Playwright image already ships with Node.js - Pin the image version to match the Playwright version in `package.json` to avoid browser/driver mismatches ## Notes - The E2E job is unaffected — it needs Docker socket access which conflicts with running inside a container - Image pulls are cached by the Docker daemon on the runner host, so the first pull is slow but subsequent runs are fast - Check `frontend/package.json` for the exact Playwright version to match the image tag ## Acceptance criteria - [ ] Unit test job no longer runs any `playwright install` or `install-deps` commands - [ ] Unit tests still pass - [ ] Job runtime is measurably shorter than before

marcel referenced this issue from a commit

2026-03-19 17:18:00 +01:00

devops: fix upload-artifact and use Playwright Docker image for unit tests

marcel referenced a pull request that will close this issue

2026-03-19 17:18:07 +01:00

devops: fix CI — Playwright Docker image + upload-artifact v3 #15

marcel closed this issue

2026-03-19 20:34:13 +01:00

marcel referenced this issue

2026-03-28 00:13:48 +01:00

feat: notifications, @mentions, and comment deep-links (#71 #72 #73) #127

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