Question

A CI workflow builds a large Node.js dependency tree that takes several minutes to install. The team adds actions/cache to speed up runs. They want to run 'npm ci' only when the cache was NOT restored (a cache miss), and skip it entirely on a full cache hit to save time. Which approach correctly implements this cost optimization?

Accepted Answer

Give the cache step an id and add 'if: steps.<cache-id>.outputs.cache-hit != "true"' to the install step so it runs only on a cache miss.

Answer

Add 'continue-on-error: true' to the install step so it is skipped whenever the cache exists.

Answer

Set 'if: cancelled()' on the install step so it only runs when no prior cache job succeeded.

Answer

Use restore-keys with a wildcard key, which automatically prevents the install step from executing on partial matches.