From b763a2d5e3a6343d76990933c9d1a3106c5b3e6a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Charlie Kolb <charlie@n8n.io>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:21:51 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] ci: Report the turbo critical path in build job summaries
 (#35092)

Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 .github/workflows/ci-master.yml        |   3 +
 .github/workflows/ci-pull-requests.yml |   4 +
 scripts/turbo-critical-path.mjs        | 101 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 108 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 scripts/turbo-critical-path.mjs

diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-master.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-master.yml
index 1a6b7f66719..4965c97646e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-master.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-master.yml
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ jobs:
           # The default is build without typechecking, we want both
           build-command: pnpm build
 
+      - name: Report build critical path
+        run: node scripts/turbo-critical-path.mjs >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
+
   unit-test:
     name: Unit tests
     uses: ./.github/workflows/test-unit-reusable.yml
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-pull-requests.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-pull-requests.yml
index 38f49894608..282fbded6da 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-pull-requests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-pull-requests.yml
@@ -155,6 +155,10 @@ jobs:
         with:
           build-command: ${{ fromJSON(steps.ci-filter.outputs.results).ci && 'pnpm build' || 'pnpm turbo run build --filter=@n8n/playwright-janitor' }}
 
+      - name: Report build critical path
+        if: fromJSON(steps.ci-filter.outputs.results).ci
+        run: node scripts/turbo-critical-path.mjs >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
+
       - name: Run format check
         if: fromJSON(steps.ci-filter.outputs.results).ci
         run: pnpm format:check
diff --git a/scripts/turbo-critical-path.mjs b/scripts/turbo-critical-path.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2ca0c5d4412
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/turbo-critical-path.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/**
+ * Reports the build-time-weighted critical path of a Turborepo run, from a
+ * `turbo run <task> --summarize` summary file. The critical path is the
+ * dependency chain with the largest total duration — the lower bound on wall
+ * time no amount of parallelism can beat. Use it to spot tasks worth
+ * shrinking or edges worth removing.
+ *
+ * Usage: node scripts/turbo-critical-path.mjs [path-to-summary.json]
+ * Defaults to the newest file in .turbo/runs/. Prints markdown; never fails.
+ */
+import { readdirSync, readFileSync, statSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { join } from 'node:path';
+
+const TOP_N = 10;
+
+function newestRunSummary() {
+	const dir = join(process.cwd(), '.turbo', 'runs');
+	const files = readdirSync(dir)
+		.filter((f) => f.endsWith('.json'))
+		.map((f) => join(dir, f))
+		.sort((a, b) => statSync(b).mtimeMs - statSync(a).mtimeMs);
+	if (files.length === 0) throw new Error(`no run summaries in ${dir}`);
+	return files[0];
+}
+
+function fmt(seconds) {
+	return seconds >= 100 ? `${Math.round(seconds)}s` : `${seconds.toFixed(1)}s`;
+}
+
+try {
+	const file = process.argv[2] ?? newestRunSummary();
+	const summary = JSON.parse(readFileSync(file, 'utf8'));
+
+	const tasks = (summary.tasks ?? [])
+		.filter((t) => t.execution?.startTime && t.execution?.endTime)
+		.map((t) => ({
+			id: t.taskId,
+			dur: (t.execution.endTime - t.execution.startTime) / 1000,
+			deps: t.dependencies ?? [],
+			cached: t.cache?.status === 'HIT',
+		}));
+	if (tasks.length === 0) throw new Error(`no executed tasks in ${file}`);
+
+	const byId = new Map(tasks.map((t) => [t.id, t]));
+	const memo = new Map();
+	function heaviestChain(id) {
+		if (memo.has(id)) return memo.get(id);
+		const task = byId.get(id);
+		if (!task) return { total: 0, path: [] };
+		// turbo graphs are acyclic, so plain recursion terminates
+		let best = { total: 0, path: [] };
+		for (const dep of task.deps) {
+			const chain = heaviestChain(dep);
+			if (chain.total > best.total) best = chain;
+		}
+		const result = { total: best.total + task.dur, path: [...best.path, id] };
+		memo.set(id, result);
+		return result;
+	}
+
+	let critical = { total: 0, path: [] };
+	for (const t of tasks) {
+		const chain = heaviestChain(t.id);
+		if (chain.total > critical.total) critical = chain;
+	}
+
+	const cpu = tasks.reduce((sum, t) => sum + t.dur, 0);
+	const wall =
+		(Math.max(...summary.tasks.map((t) => t.execution?.endTime ?? 0)) -
+			Math.min(
+				...summary.tasks.filter((t) => t.execution?.startTime).map((t) => t.execution.startTime),
+			)) /
+		1000;
+	const cachedCount = tasks.filter((t) => t.cached).length;
+
+	const label = (t) => `\`${t.id}\`${t.cached ? ' (cache hit)' : ''}`;
+
+	const lines = [
+		`### Turbo critical path — \`${summary.execution?.command ?? 'run'}\``,
+		'',
+		`Wall ${fmt(wall)} · task CPU ${fmt(cpu)} · parallelism ${(cpu / wall).toFixed(1)}× · ${tasks.length} tasks (${cachedCount} cache hits)`,
+		'',
+		`**Critical path: ${fmt(critical.total)}** (${((critical.total / wall) * 100).toFixed(0)}% of wall time)`,
+		'',
+		...critical.path.map((id) => `- ${fmt(byId.get(id).dur)} ${label(byId.get(id))}`),
+		'',
+		`**Slowest tasks**`,
+		'',
+		...tasks
+			.slice()
+			.sort((a, b) => b.dur - a.dur)
+			.slice(0, TOP_N)
+			.map((t) => `- ${fmt(t.dur)} ${label(t)}`),
+		'',
+	];
+	console.log(lines.join('\n'));
+} catch (error) {
+	// Reporting only — never break the build over it.
+	console.log(`turbo-critical-path: skipped (${error.message})`);
+}