first local test run requires `npm run build` about docs

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open 60 days with no activity.

[JamesMGreene]

For the short term, we've also clarified this in the contributing/development documentation: 054f9ab

[FarazzShaikh]

@zeke Why not use the postinstall script in the package.json to run the build script. It only runs once after npm install.

cc: @JamesMGreene @janiceilene

[zeke]

Good idea @FarazzShaikh! That might work. Would you care to give it a try and open a PR if it does?

[FarazzShaikh]

Will do later today! Could you assign this issue to me so it doesn’t slip my mind? Thank you!

[FarazzShaikh]

This does indeed work. Adding the script "postinstall": "npm run build" to package.json does build once after installations. However, one test (tests/routing/developer-site-redirects.js) fails when running npm run test but i don't think it's related to this.

Also, you might have to change your Actions workflows as npm ci also calls postinstall thus making the npm run build commands redundant.

@zeke if you're fine with this, I can make the changes to the workflows and the package.json then PR it in.

[JamesMGreene]

@FarazzShaikh We're definitely open to that! FWIW, your PR will receive a message saying we don't accept contributions to workflow files but we're willing to make exceptions for small change sets like what you mentoned. 👍🏻

One suggestion, though, would be to use the prepare script instead of postinstall as that more closely aligns with our needs (building/transpiling code) semantically.

[FarazzShaikh]

Sounds good, I’ll make the required changes with prepare And PR it in

[JamesMGreene]

We've decided not to implement this behavior for the time being.

More details: #7713 (comment)