Package once, and build full installers after merge

Drop the build step that packaging repeats, and build the unpacked app pull requests test.

Prompt

Evaluate and apply this CI technique to my repository: Package once, and build full installers after merge.

Drop the build step that packaging repeats, and build the unpacked app pull requests test.

Read the technique and its source-backed company examples: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/package-once.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.

View all playbooks

How DoorDash used this technique

Read what DoorDash changed and follow the original sources.

Package once, and build full installers after merge

The desktop job ran a Build step and then packaging, which runs the same electron-vite build again. The PR removed the standalone Build step. Pull requests now package the unpacked app that the end-to-end journeys consume; pushes to main still build and inspect the full installers.

Use it when: A job builds explicitly before a packaging or test command that builds again, or pull requests build release artifacts that no test reads.
Before applying it: Read the wrapper scripts before removing a build step. The full installers still need a post-merge run that someone watches.

How DoorDash used this technique

Package once, and build full installers after merge

Related techniques

Move selected heavy checks after merge

Remove repeated build steps

Run shared validation once

Company Playbooks

Related guides

Cancel superseded CI runs

Build and test only what changed

Filter workflows by changed files

Cut CI queue time

Bound runner jobs with timeouts

Right-size GitHub Actions runners