CI: Optimize release workflow with cache and nimble

[akriaueno]

Changes

• Use nimble c instead of nim c for consistent build environment
• Add caching for ~/.nimble directory to speed up dependencies installation

Motivation

• Improve build time, especially on macOS runners
• Ensure correct package resolution during release build

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Optimized build workflow caching for improved release process efficiency.

_{✏️ Tip: You can customize this high-level summary in your review settings.}

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

This change introduces a caching mechanism for Nimble package manager dependencies in the GitHub Actions release workflow. The new step caches the ~/.nimble directory using a key derived from the runner OS and nimble.lock hash, with fallback restore patterns based on OS.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
GitHub Actions Release Workflow .github/workflows/release.yml	Added a new caching step that caches Nimble dependencies at ~/.nimble, keyed by runner OS and nimble.lock hash, to accelerate subsequent workflow runs.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 1 (Trivial) | ⏱️ ~3 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• Use nimble build in release workflow #6: Also modifies .github/workflows/release.yml to adjust Nimble usage in the release workflow by switching the build step to nimble build.
• Fix release CI: generate nimble.paths #5: Also modifies the release workflow's Nimble dependency handling by changing the install step to run nimble install --depsOnly to generate nimble.paths.

Poem

🐰 A cache we build with nimble care,
~/.nimble stored without despair,
Locked and hashed with GitHub's grace,
Dependencies swift in their place! ✨

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main changes: optimizing the release workflow by adding caching for Nimble dependencies, which aligns with the PR's objectives.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

✨ Finishing touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment
• Commit unit tests in branch feature/optimize-ci-cache

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📜 Recent review details

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between abe88cb and 58fb761.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• .github/workflows/release.yml (1 hunks)

⏰ Context from checks skipped due to timeout of 90000ms. You can increase the timeout in your CodeRabbit configuration to a maximum of 15 minutes (900000ms). (1)

• GitHub Check: test (macos-latest)

🔇 Additional comments (2)

.github/workflows/release.yml (2)

63-63: Note: PR description mentions build command changes not visible in this diff.

The PR description mentions "Use nimble c instead of nim c", but the build command shown here already uses nimble build. This might indicate:

• The description refers to changes in other files not included in this review, or
• The description is outdated/misleading

The current command nimble build -d:release is correct and appropriate.

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40-46: Caching implementation is correct.

The nimble.lock file exists in the repository, so hashFiles('nimble.lock') will properly invalidate the cache when dependencies change. The cache key structure with OS-based restore keys is well-designed and will function as intended.

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