Streamline flaky local-dev test suite (#57716)

.github/workflows/local-dev.yml

@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
 name: Local development
 
-# **What it does**: Can you start the local server like a writer would do?
-# **Why we have it**: Our CI is often heavily geared on testing in "production"
-#                     that historically we've been known to break local
-#                     development sometimes.
+# **What it does**: Basic smoke test to ensure local dev server starts and serves content
+# **Why we have it**: Catch catastrophic "npm start is completely broken" scenarios
 # **Who does it impact**: Engineers, Contributors.
 
 on:
@@ -28,76 +26,25 @@ jobs:
         with:
           token: ${{ secrets.DOCS_BOT_PAT_BASE }}
 
-      # Note that we don't check out docs-early-access, Elasticsearch,
-      # or any remote translations. Nothing fancy here!
-
       - name: Disable Next.js telemetry
         run: npx next telemetry disable
 
-      - name: Install headless browser
-        run: npx playwright install --no-shell
-
-      # The Playwright test, with the env vars we set here, takes care of
-      # starting a server and shutting it down when it's done.
-      # That's why it's important this step comes before the `npm start &`
-      # step below.
-      - name: Run Playwright tests
-        env:
-          # This is what local dev contributors are expected to do.
-          PLAYWRIGHT_START_SERVER_COMMAND: 'npm start'
-          # This is so that timeouts aren't retried, which can lead to
-          # tests not exiting at the end with a non-zero. Otherwise,
-          # by default failures are marked as "flaky" instead of "failed".
-          PLAYWRIGHT_RETRIES: 0
-          TEST_EARLY_ACCESS: ${{ github.repository == 'github/docs-internal' }}
-          # workaround for https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/59364 as of 22.18.0
-          NODE_OPTIONS: '--no-experimental-strip-types --max-old-space-size=8192'
-        run: npm run playwright-test -- playwright-local-dev
-
-      - name: Start server in the background
-        run: npm start > /tmp/stdout.log 2> /tmp/stderr.log &
-
-      - name: View the home page
+      - name: Start server and basic smoke test
         run: |
-          echo "Going to sleep a little to wait for the server to start"
-          sleep 15
-          curl --fail --retry-connrefused --retry 5 http://localhost:4000/
+          # Start server in background
+          npm start > /tmp/stdout.log 2> /tmp/stderr.log &
+          SERVER_PID=$!
 
-      - name: Run basic tests
-        run: npm run test-local-dev
-
-      - if: ${{ failure() }}
-        name: Debug server outputs on errors
-        run: |
-          echo "____STDOUT____"
-          cat /tmp/stdout.log
-          echo "____STDERR____"
-          cat /tmp/stderr.log
-
-      - name: Pre-commit hooks should prevent bad Markdown edits
-        run: |
-          set -e
-
-          # This test assumes this one file always exists
-          ls content/get-started/start-your-journey/hello-world.md
-
-          # Not sure if it matters but we're in a detached HEAD state
-          # after the actions/checkout action.
-          git checkout -b my-new-branch
-          # Also, do this so you don't get errors from git about this
-          # not being set up before your first commit attempt
-          git config user.name github-actions
-          git config user.email github-actions@github.com
-
-          # To know what will fail the markdown lint, see src/content-linter/style/github-docs.js
-          # Add some NOT valid Markdown to it
-          # In this case an internal link with a hardcode /en/ prefix.
-          echo "This *is** not valid [Markdown](/en/foo)" >> content/get-started/start-your-journey/hello-world.md
-          git commit -a -m "this should fail"
-          exit_code=$?
-          if [ $exit_code != 0 ]; then
-            echo "That SHOULD have failed, but it DIDN'T"
-            exit 1
+          # Wait for server to be ready and test homepage
+          if curl --fail --retry-connrefused --retry 10 --retry-delay 2 http://localhost:4000/; then
+            echo "✅ Local dev server started successfully and serves homepage"
+            kill $SERVER_PID 2>/dev/null || true
           else
-            echo "As expected, it failed :)"
+            echo "❌ Local dev server failed to start or serve content"
+            echo "____STDOUT____"
+            cat /tmp/stdout.log
+            echo "____STDERR____"
+            cat /tmp/stderr.log
+            kill $SERVER_PID 2>/dev/null || true
+            exit 1
           fi