Move optional cache uploads off the merge gate

Let required checks finish without waiting for optional cache publication, while keeping cache writes available to later runs.

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Prompt

Evaluate and apply this CI technique to my repository: Move optional cache uploads off the merge gate.

Let required checks finish without waiting for optional cache publication, while keeping cache writes available to later runs.

Read the technique and its source-backed company examples: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/cache-uploads-off-gate.md

Inspect this repository’s CI workflows, build and test commands, dependencies, and recent run timings. Identify where this technique applies and explain the expected benefit using this repository’s evidence.
Measure a baseline from recent comparable runs: elapsed time, queue time, runner minutes and failures where available. If data is unavailable, say what cannot be measured.
Compare relevant company approaches, checking prerequisites, platform differences and tradeoffs. Rank applicable options by evidence, fit and measurable opportunity; do not present company results as predictions for this repo.
Recommend the smallest safe change, show what checks and fallback paths remain, and ASK ME WHICH CHANGE TO APPROVE BEFORE EDITING ANY FILES.
Only after approval, work on a new feature branch, make one reversible change, and open a reviewable pull request. Never merge or push to a default or protected branch.
Keep required checks, test coverage, deployment and release behavior intact. Validate the change and compare equivalent runs where possible; report limitations and what should be monitored after merge.

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How companies used this technique

Read what each company changed and follow the original sources.

Let optional cache writes finish after the merge gate

Linear moved cache-marker writes into a job downstream of the test shards that gates nothing. That took 42 seconds off the merge path for every API pull request and merge-queue entry.

This change took 42 seconds off the merge path. Together with the checkout changes before it in Linear’s post, the section took roughly a minute off the required check for API pull requests on cache misses, while also reducing runner starts. Source

Use it when: A write only benefits future runs and is not part of the current run’s correctness.
Before applying it: Keep every test, required status and artifact dependency. Confirm the current run’s correctness never depends on the write before moving it off the required checks.

Keep cache uploads outside required test jobs

The CLI's required native help jobs now restore caches without compressing and uploading them after the tests. Windows x64 restores the archive other CI jobs produce; main-only warmers own the saves, capped at five minutes and non-fatal.

Required native jobs restore caches; warmers on main save them Source

Use it when: Tests pass but post-job cache compression eats into the job's deadline.
Before applying it: A restore-only job needs a compatible trusted producer that runs often enough to keep the cache warm. Keep required checks and their limits as they are.

How companies used this technique

Let optional cache writes finish after the merge gate

Keep cache uploads outside required test jobs

Company Playbooks

Related guides

Keep non-required checks off the GitHub Actions critical path