Files
PaperClipAI/.github/workflows/docker.yml
T
Devin Foley ea0dd3917e build: make image layer caching actually hit (#10571)
## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work
> - Published container images are the deployable unit for self-hosted
and managed instances, so merge-to-image latency bounds every deploy
iteration
> - The docker workflow configures BuildKit caching, but builds still
ran ~12+ minutes essentially cold
> - Two causes: the most expensive layer (four CLI toolchains + apt) is
ordered after the always-changing app copy so it can never cache, and
the type=gha cache's 10GB repo cap means the two multi-arch mode=max
jobs evict each other
> - This pull request reorders the tool layer above the app copy (with a
weekly epoch so @latest tools keep advancing) and switches both jobs to
registry-backed cache in ghcr
> - The benefit is that warm builds shrink to roughly the app build +
push, targeting the sub-5-minute range together with the amd64-only
cloud variant

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

No existing public issue — inline description following the feature
request template:

**Subsystem affected**

CI / release publishing (docker workflow, Dockerfile)

**Problem or motivation**

Despite `cache-from/cache-to` being configured, image builds run
effectively cold: (1) the production stage installs four CLI toolchains
+ apt packages *after* `COPY --from=build /app /app`, and since the app
copy changes every commit, that most-expensive layer rebuilds every
build, per arch; (2) the `type=gha` BuildKit cache is capped at 10GB per
repository, and two multi-arch `mode=max` jobs overflow and evict each
other's entries.

**Proposed solution**

Order the tool/OS layer before the app copy (it references nothing from
`/app`), refresh it weekly via a `CLI_TOOLS_CACHE_EPOCH` build arg so
the `@latest` tools don't freeze in the cache, and move both jobs to
registry-backed BuildKit cache (`:buildcache` / `:buildcache-cloud` refs
in ghcr, no size cap, separate refs so the parallel jobs don't clobber
each other).

**Alternatives considered**

Pinning CLI tool versions instead of the weekly epoch — more
deterministic, but adds a version-bump chore; the weekly epoch preserves
current freshness semantics with bounded staleness. Keeping type=gha
with `mode=min` — smaller cache but loses intermediate-stage reuse,
which is where most of the win is.

**Roadmap alignment**

Not on ROADMAP.md; CI/publishing speed improvement only.

## What Changed

- `Dockerfile`: the production stage's tool/OS `RUN` (npm --global CLIs,
apt, `/paperclip` setup) moves above `COPY --from=build /app /app`; new
`CLI_TOOLS_CACHE_EPOCH` arg consumed by that layer. The `cloud` stage is
unaffected — it only layers plugin dists on top of the finished
production stage.
- `.github/workflows/docker.yml`: both jobs stamp the ISO week into
`CLI_TOOLS_CACHE_EPOCH`, and both switch `cache-from/cache-to` from
`type=gha` to `type=registry` with per-job refs.
- Includes the one-line amd64-only cloud-variant commit from #10570 so
the two PRs can't conflict; if #10570 merges first, this PR rebases down
to a single commit automatically.

## Verification

- Image content is unchanged by layer reordering: the moved `RUN`
references nothing from `/app`, and Docker layer ordering only affects
caching, not the final filesystem (tool installs and app copy touch
disjoint paths).
- The cache ref is written only by this workflow — `docker.yml` runs on
master/tag pushes, never on PRs — so the workflow's existing "no shared
caches into build inputs" supply-chain stance is unchanged (BuildKit
layer cache was already accepted via type=gha; the registry backend has
the same writer trust).
- Runtime proof lands with the first two master builds after merge: the
first warms the cache, the second should show the tool layer and
deps/build stages as CACHED in the build log, with wall clock dropping
accordingly. I'll be watching those as part of managed-deploy work.

## Risks

- Low. Worst case the registry cache misses (cold-build behavior, same
as today). The weekly epoch means CLI tools update at most a week late
inside images; a release built mid-week ships the tools from that week's
first build. Cache refs add two small artifacts to ghcr.

## Model Used

Claude Fable 5 (`claude-fable-5`, extended thinking, via Claude Code
with tool use and code execution).

## Checklist

- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have searched GitHub for duplicate or related PRs and linked
them above
- [x] I have either (a) linked existing issues with `Fixes: #` / `Closes
#` / `Refs #` OR (b) described the issue in-PR following the relevant
issue template
- [x] I have not referenced internal/instance-local Paperclip issues or
links (only public GitHub `#NNN` / `github.com/paperclipai/paperclip`
URLs)
- [x] My branch name describes the change (e.g. `docs/...`, `fix/...`)
and contains no internal Paperclip ticket id or instance-derived details
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass (no test-affecting changes)
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable (n/a — build config
and layer ordering only)
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
(in-file comments document both mechanisms)
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [ ] All Paperclip CI gates are green
- [ ] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
2026-07-31 14:47:25 -07:00

334 lines
13 KiB
YAML

name: Docker
on:
push:
branches:
- "master"
tags:
- "v*"
permissions:
contents: read
packages: write
# Serialise builds per ref without killing an in-flight one: a newer push
# supersedes only the pending slot, so the image build that is already
# running always finishes and publishes.
concurrency:
group: docker-${{ github.ref }}
cancel-in-progress: false
jobs:
build-and-push:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
timeout-minutes: 60
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v7
with:
# Full history and tags so `git describe` below can compute the
# release version to stamp into the image.
fetch-depth: 0
# `.git` is dockerignored, so a running image cannot derive its own
# version and otherwise reports the source package.json placeholder in
# analytics and the debug panel. Compute it here from the pristine
# checkout (real CalVer drift from the nearest release tag) and pass it
# into both builds. Empty when no release tag is reachable — the server
# then keeps its existing fallbacks.
- name: Compute build version
id: build-version
run: |
set -euo pipefail
version="$(git describe --tags --match 'v*' --long --dirty 2>/dev/null || true)"
echo "version=${version}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
echo "Stamping build version: ${version:-<none>}"
# ISO week stamp for the Dockerfile's tool layer: the layer caches
# across commits and re-pulls the @latest CLI tools when the week rolls
# over, instead of on every build.
- name: Compute tool cache epoch
id: tools-epoch
run: echo "epoch=$(date -u +%G-W%V)" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
- name: Setup pnpm
uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6
with:
version: 9.15.4
run_install: false
# No dependency cache here: this workflow publishes release images, and
# restoring a shared Actions cache into the build inputs would let a
# poisoned cache entry reach the published artifact.
- name: Setup Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v7
with:
node-version: 20
- name: Refresh lockfile for Docker build context
run: |
set -euo pipefail
pnpm install --lockfile-only --ignore-scripts --no-frozen-lockfile
changed="$(git status --porcelain)"
if [ -z "$changed" ]; then
echo "Lockfile already matches package metadata."
exit 0
fi
if printf '%s\n' "$changed" | grep -Fvq ' pnpm-lock.yaml'; then
echo "Unexpected files changed during lockfile refresh:"
echo "$changed"
exit 1
fi
echo "Using refreshed pnpm-lock.yaml in the Docker build context."
- name: Free runner disk
run: |
set -euo pipefail
echo "Disk before cleanup:"
df -h
pnpm store prune || true
sudo apt-get clean || true
sudo rm -rf \
/usr/share/dotnet \
/usr/share/swift \
/usr/local/lib/android \
/usr/local/share/boost \
/usr/local/share/powershell \
/opt/ghc \
/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL \
/opt/hostedtoolcache/PyPy \
/opt/hostedtoolcache/Ruby || true
docker system prune -af || true
echo "Disk after cleanup:"
df -h
- name: Login to GitHub Container Registry
uses: docker/login-action@v4
with:
registry: ghcr.io
username: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Set up Docker Buildx
uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v4
# Deployment tooling reads these labels from the registry to verify an
# image's schema expectations against a migrator before deploying it,
# without pulling the image. The server refuses to start when the
# database is missing bundled migrations, so orchestrators need a cheap
# way to check image/migrator compatibility up front.
- name: Compute schema migration labels
id: schema
run: |
set -euo pipefail
last=$(ls packages/db/src/migrations/*.sql | sed 's|.*/||' | LC_ALL=C sort | tail -1)
count=$(ls packages/db/src/migrations/*.sql | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
echo "last=${last}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
echo "count=${count}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
- name: Docker meta
id: meta
uses: docker/metadata-action@v6
with:
images: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}
tags: |
type=raw,value=latest,enable={{is_default_branch}}
type=semver,pattern={{version}}
type=semver,pattern={{major}}.{{minor}}
type=sha
labels: |
io.github.paperclipai.schema.last-migration=${{ steps.schema.outputs.last }}
io.github.paperclipai.schema.migration-count=${{ steps.schema.outputs.count }}
- name: Build and push
uses: docker/build-push-action@v7
with:
context: .
# Pin the self-hosted image to the production stage explicitly:
# the Dockerfile now declares a later `cloud` stage, and without a
# target the default would silently become that stage.
target: production
build-args: |
PAPERCLIP_BUILD_VERSION=${{ steps.build-version.outputs.version }}
PAPERCLIP_BUILD_COMMIT=${{ github.sha }}
CLI_TOOLS_CACHE_EPOCH=${{ steps.tools-epoch.outputs.epoch }}
platforms: linux/amd64,linux/arm64
push: true
# Registry-backed BuildKit cache instead of type=gha: the Actions
# cache is capped at 10GB per repo, and two multi-arch mode=max jobs
# evict each other, so most builds ran effectively cold. The cache
# ref lives in ghcr next to the image and is written only by this
# workflow (docker.yml runs on master/tag pushes, never on PRs).
cache-from: type=registry,ref=ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:buildcache
cache-to: type=registry,ref=ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:buildcache,mode=max
tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
# The cloud variant carries built bundled plugins for managed deployments
# (see the `cloud` stage in the Dockerfile). It runs as its own job with no
# `needs:` on the stock publish above, so the two builds run in parallel and
# a failure or slow build in one never gates, delays, or skips the other.
# Both jobs share only the single top-level concurrency slot. Each job is a
# separate runner, so this one carries its own copy of the prep steps
# (checkout through schema labels) — the accepted cost of that isolation.
build-and-push-cloud:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
timeout-minutes: 60
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v7
with:
# Full history and tags so `git describe` below can compute the
# release version to stamp into the image.
fetch-depth: 0
# `.git` is dockerignored, so a running image cannot derive its own
# version and otherwise reports the source package.json placeholder in
# analytics and the debug panel. Compute it here from the pristine
# checkout (real CalVer drift from the nearest release tag) and pass it
# into the build. Empty when no release tag is reachable — the server
# then keeps its existing fallbacks.
- name: Compute build version
id: build-version
run: |
set -euo pipefail
version="$(git describe --tags --match 'v*' --long --dirty 2>/dev/null || true)"
echo "version=${version}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
echo "Stamping build version: ${version:-<none>}"
# ISO week stamp for the Dockerfile's tool layer: the layer caches
# across commits and re-pulls the @latest CLI tools when the week rolls
# over, instead of on every build.
- name: Compute tool cache epoch
id: tools-epoch
run: echo "epoch=$(date -u +%G-W%V)" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
- name: Setup pnpm
uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6
with:
version: 9.15.4
run_install: false
# No dependency cache here: this workflow publishes release images, and
# restoring a shared Actions cache into the build inputs would let a
# poisoned cache entry reach the published artifact.
- name: Setup Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v7
with:
node-version: 20
- name: Refresh lockfile for Docker build context
run: |
set -euo pipefail
pnpm install --lockfile-only --ignore-scripts --no-frozen-lockfile
changed="$(git status --porcelain)"
if [ -z "$changed" ]; then
echo "Lockfile already matches package metadata."
exit 0
fi
if printf '%s\n' "$changed" | grep -Fvq ' pnpm-lock.yaml'; then
echo "Unexpected files changed during lockfile refresh:"
echo "$changed"
exit 1
fi
echo "Using refreshed pnpm-lock.yaml in the Docker build context."
- name: Free runner disk
run: |
set -euo pipefail
echo "Disk before cleanup:"
df -h
pnpm store prune || true
sudo apt-get clean || true
sudo rm -rf \
/usr/share/dotnet \
/usr/share/swift \
/usr/local/lib/android \
/usr/local/share/boost \
/usr/local/share/powershell \
/opt/ghc \
/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL \
/opt/hostedtoolcache/PyPy \
/opt/hostedtoolcache/Ruby || true
docker system prune -af || true
echo "Disk after cleanup:"
df -h
- name: Login to GitHub Container Registry
uses: docker/login-action@v4
with:
registry: ghcr.io
username: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Set up Docker Buildx
uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v4
# Deployment tooling reads these labels from the registry to verify an
# image's schema expectations against a migrator before deploying it,
# without pulling the image. The server refuses to start when the
# database is missing bundled migrations, so orchestrators need a cheap
# way to check image/migrator compatibility up front.
- name: Compute schema migration labels
id: schema
run: |
set -euo pipefail
last=$(ls packages/db/src/migrations/*.sql | sed 's|.*/||' | LC_ALL=C sort | tail -1)
count=$(ls packages/db/src/migrations/*.sql | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
echo "last=${last}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
echo "count=${count}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
# Published under the same tag set with a `-cloud` suffix
# (sha-<short>-cloud, latest-cloud, <version>-cloud).
- name: Docker meta (cloud)
id: meta-cloud
uses: docker/metadata-action@v6
with:
images: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}
flavor: |
suffix=-cloud,onlatest=true
tags: |
type=raw,value=latest,enable={{is_default_branch}}
type=semver,pattern={{version}}
type=semver,pattern={{major}}.{{minor}}
type=sha
labels: |
io.github.paperclipai.schema.last-migration=${{ steps.schema.outputs.last }}
io.github.paperclipai.schema.migration-count=${{ steps.schema.outputs.count }}
- name: Build and push (cloud)
uses: docker/build-push-action@v7
with:
context: .
target: cloud
# Space-separated sandbox-provider directory names to build into
# the variant; add here when managed deployments need another.
build-args: |
CLOUD_BUNDLED_PLUGINS=daytona
PAPERCLIP_BUILD_VERSION=${{ steps.build-version.outputs.version }}
PAPERCLIP_BUILD_COMMIT=${{ github.sha }}
CLI_TOOLS_CACHE_EPOCH=${{ steps.tools-epoch.outputs.epoch }}
# amd64 only, unlike the self-hosted image above: the cloud variant
# is consumed exclusively by managed-deployment hosts, which run
# amd64. The QEMU-emulated arm64 half dominated this job's wall
# clock, and dropping it roughly halves time-to-deployable-image.
platforms: linux/amd64
push: true
# Registry-backed BuildKit cache, separate ref from the self-hosted
# job so the two parallel builds never clobber each other's cache
# manifest (see the rationale on the job above).
cache-from: type=registry,ref=ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:buildcache-cloud
cache-to: type=registry,ref=ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:buildcache-cloud,mode=max
tags: ${{ steps.meta-cloud.outputs.tags }}
labels: ${{ steps.meta-cloud.outputs.labels }}