feat: add dependency caching to GitHub Action workflows

[giwaov]

Summary

Adds dependency caching to GitHub Action workflows that were missing it, reducing CI run times by avoiding redundant dependency downloads.

Changes

• frontend-unit-tests.yml: Added npm cache via \�ctions/setup-node\ with \cache-dependency-path: frontend/package-lock.json\
• genvm-lint.yml: Added pip cache via \�ctions/setup-python\ with \cache: pip\
• release-from-main.yml: Added npm cache via \�ctions/setup-node\ with \cache: npm\

Already cached (no changes needed)

• .pre-commit.yml\ - pip + npm cache
• \�ackend_integration_tests_pr.yml\ - pip + Docker buildx + GenVM cache
• \docker-build-and-push-image.yml\ - Docker buildx cache
• \unit-tests-pr.yml\ (backend job) - pip cache

Related Issue

Closes #330

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Optimized the overall build infrastructure by enabling dependency caching mechanisms across multiple Node.js and Python runtime environments, improving continuous integration and continuous deployment pipeline performance and reliability. These infrastructure optimizations reduce overall build execution times, streamline development and release workflows, and enhance development productivity without affecting user-facing functionality or features.

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Updated three GitHub Actions workflows to enable dependency caching: npm caching for Node.js jobs in frontend-unit-tests and release-from-main workflows, and pip caching for the Python setup in the genvm-lint workflow.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
GitHub Actions Caching Configuration .github/workflows/frontend-unit-tests.yml, .github/workflows/genvm-lint.yml, .github/workflows/release-from-main.yml	Enabled dependency caching across three workflows: npm cache with scoped dependency path for frontend tests and release workflows, and pip cache for linting workflow.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 1 (Trivial) | ⏱️ ~3 minutes

Poem

🐰 Caching makes the workflows fly,
No more downloads, oh my, oh my!
Swift npm and pip so keen,
Fastest builds the CI's seen! ✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 inconclusive)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Description check	❓ Inconclusive	The description provides a clear summary of changes and related issue but lacks sections from the template like 'What', 'Why', 'Testing done', and 'Decisions made'.	Expand the description to include 'What' (detailed change list), 'Why' (motivation), 'Testing done' (verification steps), and complete the 'Checks' section.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately and concisely describes the main change: adding dependency caching to GitHub Action workflows.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR successfully implements caching for npm and pip in three workflows as required by issue #330, reducing CI runtime and redundant dependency downloads.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes are directly related to implementing dependency caching in GitHub Action workflows as specified in issue #330; no out-of-scope modifications detected.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

Inline comments:
In @.github/workflows/release-from-main.yml:
- Line 30: The workflow enables actions/setup-node caching but doesn't point to
the frontend package files and later runs npm install at the repo root; update
the actions/setup-node step to include cache-dependency-path: "./frontend" and
ensure the release install step runs in the frontend folder (either add
working-directory: ./frontend to the run step or change the install command to
use npm --prefix ./frontend install and npm --prefix ./frontend install
`@semantic-release/`...). This fixes the cache key lookup and prevents npm install
from running where package.json is missing.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: f5f933a2-a057-4758-90d5-d264eb89ff2b

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between cd554a6 and 62562bb.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• .github/workflows/frontend-unit-tests.yml
• .github/workflows/genvm-lint.yml
• .github/workflows/release-from-main.yml

[coderabbitai]

⚠️ Potential issue | 🔴 Critical

🧩 Analysis chain

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

echo "Checking root-level npm lockfiles expected by setup-node cache..."
fd -HI '^(package-lock\.json|npm-shrinkwrap\.json)$' .

echo
echo "Inspecting release workflow setup-node block..."
rg -n -C3 'name: Setup Node\.js|cache: "npm"|cache-dependency-path|npm install `@semantic-release`' .github/workflows/release-from-main.yml

Repository: genlayerlabs/genlayer-studio

Length of output: 773

---

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

echo "Checking for root-level package.json..."
if [ -f package.json ]; then
  echo "ROOT package.json found."
  head -20 package.json
else
  echo "ROOT package.json NOT found."
fi

echo
echo "Checking for frontend-level package.json..."
if [ -f frontend/package.json ]; then
  echo "FRONTEND package.json found."
  head -20 frontend/package.json
else
  echo "FRONTEND package.json NOT found."
fi

echo
echo "Full listing of package-lock.json locations..."
find . -name "package-lock.json" -o -name "npm-shrinkwrap.json" 2>/dev/null

Repository: genlayerlabs/genlayer-studio

Length of output: 1203

---

The release workflow will fail at the npm install step.

Line 30 enables npm caching without specifying cache-dependency-path, and line 32 attempts to run npm install at the repository root. However, there is no package.json at the root—all dependencies are defined in ./frontend/package.json. The workflow will fail because:

1. actions/setup-node searches for package-lock.json at the repository root by default (cache key miss)
2. npm install @semantic-release/... at root will fail: no package.json exists there

Fix: Either add cache-dependency-path: "./frontend" to the setup-node step (line 30), or reorganize the release dependencies to the root.

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

In @.github/workflows/release-from-main.yml at line 30, The workflow enables
actions/setup-node caching but doesn't point to the frontend package files and
later runs npm install at the repo root; update the actions/setup-node step to
include cache-dependency-path: "./frontend" and ensure the release install step
runs in the frontend folder (either add working-directory: ./frontend to the run
step or change the install command to use npm --prefix ./frontend install and
npm --prefix ./frontend install `@semantic-release/`...). This fixes the cache key
lookup and prevents npm install from running where package.json is missing.

[MuncleUscles]

LGTM — good CI optimization, thanks!

[giwaov]

Both CI failures are unrelated to this PR's changes - they're upstream config issues:

• backend-unit-tests / SonarCloud Scan: Project not found - the project key yeagerai_genlayer-simulator isn't resolving. Likely a SonarCloud org/token config issue.
• frontend / Codecov Upload: Token required - not valid tokenless upload - Codecov token isn't available for fork PRs.

Actual unit tests passed in both jobs.