GitHub Actions Caching Examples

This repository contains working GitHub Actions workflows demonstrating caching strategies to speed up CI/CD pipelines for Docker, Python, and Node.js projects.

Workflows Included

1. Docker Image Caching

   • Uses Docker Buildx cache exporters to persist and reuse Docker layers.
   • Cuts Docker build times from minutes to seconds.

2. Python Dependency Caching

   • Traditional pip cache: caches downloaded wheels in ~/.cache/pip.
   • Virtual environment cache: caches the entire .venv for instant environment setup.

3. Node.js Caching

   • Uses the actions/setup-node action with cache: 'npm' to persist npm registry cache.

Getting Started

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/CodeWithHitesh/github-actions-caching.git

2. Explore the workflow files in .github/workflows/.

3. Adapt the examples to your own projects by updating paths, keys, and lockfiles.

More Information

For a detailed walkthrough, real-world metrics, and a narrative on how these strategies rescued my sanity at 3 AM, check out my Medium article:

The Great Speed Heist: How I Turned My Sluggish GitHub Actions into Lightning-Fast Workflows
https://medium.com/@hiteshmalhotra622/the-great-speed-heist-how-i-turned-my-sluggish-github-actions-into-lightning-fast-workflows-8f7a32478989

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Feel free to file issues or pull requests with enhancements, questions, or feedback!