CI: build only job-targeted runtime platforms

[doraemonmj]

Summary

• Add one non-cached aggregate CMake target per CI platform so CMake can build the binding and selected runtimes in one dependency graph.
• Make sim, onboard, pod, pre-commit, profiling, and sanitizer installs omit runtime platforms they do not consume, without splitting jobs or changing test selection.
• Remove the repeated pre-commit runtime build and ineffective CMake cache, and stabilize pip cache keys across source-only changes.
• Provision cmake>=3.15 for every --no-build-isolation path and add a targeted-install to default-install packaging regression.

Ordinary package installs still use the default ALL target and auto-detect every available platform. Target selection is not stored in the CMake cache.

Performance

Local cold-wheel measurements show the single-platform build path reducing fixed Package/CMake time by about 40-47% with four CPUs and 11-12% on the high-core host. A recent pre-commit run spent 92 seconds in the now-removed second runtime build.

The aggregate-target Ninja log confirms the binding and runtime dependency windows overlap; scikit-build-core receives one target and therefore performs one project build rather than serially iterating a target list. Final Job p50/p90 still needs validation on matching GitHub-hosted and self-hosted runner tiers.

Testing

• Targeted a2a3sim wheel followed by a default wheel in the same build directory; the default build adds a5sim and no platform selection remains in CMake cache
• Four-CPU cold aggregate-target builds for the combined sim target and single-platform target
• Ninja log inspection confirms binding/runtime overlap
• pre-commit run --from-ref upstream/main --to-ref HEAD
• YAML parse, bash -n tools/verify_packaging.sh, and git diff --check
• Full GitHub-hosted and self-hosted CI

No NPU execution was needed for the local build validation.

Refs #1772

[coderabbitai]

Important

Review skipped

Auto incremental reviews are disabled on this repository.

Please check the settings in the CodeRabbit UI or the .coderabbit.yaml file in this repository. To trigger a single review, invoke the @coderabbitai review command.

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 909f951c-b43d-4f8c-a669-53223ef9b797

You can disable this status message by setting the reviews.review_status to false in the CodeRabbit configuration file.

Use the checkbox below for a quick retry:

• 🔍 Trigger review

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The change adds platform-specific CMake package targets, updates reusable environment setup and CI workflows to use them, propagates pod platform selection, verifies targeted packaging, and makes pip cache keys architecture-aware.

Changes

Targeted platform build CI

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Platform build target graph CMakeLists.txt, tools/verify_packaging.sh, docs/ci.md	CMake adds platform-specific and combined runtime/package targets. Packaging verification tests targeted and default installations. CI documentation describes the target selection.
Reusable environment and workflow setup .github/actions/setup-venv/action.yml, .github/workflows/_pre-commit.yml, .github/workflows/_profiling-flags-smoke.yml, .github/workflows/_st-*.yml, .github/workflows/_ut-*.yml, .github/workflows/sanitizers.yml	The shared environment action installs build packages before project packages. CI workflows select platform-specific targets and invoke tests through .venv/bin/python.
Pod platform propagation .github/actions/pod-stage/action.yml, .github/workflows/_st-pod.yml	Pod staging validates the platform input and selects the matching package target. The pod workflow passes its platform to the staging action.
Architecture-aware caching .github/actions/cache-pip/action.yml, docs/ci.md	Pip cache keys include runner architecture and hash pyproject.toml instead of all Python files.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~25 minutes

Possibly related issues

• Reduce CI per-job wall time #1772 — Adds platform-specific build targets and CI setup changes that align with reducing per-job installation and runtime-build work.

Possibly related PRs

• hw-native-sys/simpler#1598 — Updates overlapping simulation workflows and virtual-environment Python invocation patterns.
• hw-native-sys/simpler#1687 — Modifies the same architecture-specific CI workflows while separating platform handling.

Poem

A rabbit hops through targets bright,
Builds the right platform day and night.
Caches spin with arches in tune,
Tests run from the venv moon.
“a2a3” and “a5” now know the way—
Binky-built CI saves the day!

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main change: CI builds only the runtime platforms required by each job.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description accurately covers targeted CMake builds, CI workflow updates, cache changes, performance results, and testing.

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 2

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In @.github/workflows/_st-npu-a5.yml:
- Around line 62-66: Update the DEVICE_LIST construction in the “Run pytest
scene tests (a5)” step to invoke the virtual-environment interpreter at
.venv/bin/python instead of the unqualified python command, while preserving the
existing device-range parsing and task-submit arguments.

In `@tools/verify_packaging.sh`:
- Around line 105-109: Update the packaging workflow’s setup-venv dependency
specification to pin CMake as cmake>=3.15, matching pyproject.toml, and apply
the same version-bound CMake requirement to the remaining no-build-isolation
setup command(s) in the packaging flow.

🪄 Autofix

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: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 21a20263-1204-48c2-b923-99055015dad1

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 7b3a975 and 6721d03.

📒 Files selected for processing (16)

• .github/actions/cache-pip/action.yml
• .github/actions/pod-stage/action.yml
• .github/actions/setup-venv/action.yml
• .github/workflows/_pre-commit.yml
• .github/workflows/_profiling-flags-smoke.yml
• .github/workflows/_st-npu-a2a3.yml
• .github/workflows/_st-npu-a5.yml
• .github/workflows/_st-pod.yml
• .github/workflows/_st-sim-a2a3.yml
• .github/workflows/_st-sim-a5.yml
• .github/workflows/_ut-npu-a2a3.yml
• .github/workflows/_ut-npu-a5.yml
• .github/workflows/sanitizers.yml
• CMakeLists.txt
• docs/ci.md
• tools/verify_packaging.sh