Gitea Actions Runners
Gitea Actions is a CI/CD system compatible with GitHub Actions workflow syntax. Runners execute workflow jobs — you register one or more runners against your Gitea instance.
What this page covers
- How Gitea Actions works (server vs. runner architecture)
- Installing the Gitea Actions runner binary
- Registering a runner against your Gitea instance
- Running the runner as a systemd service or Docker container
- Configuring runner labels for job targeting
Runner architecture
Gitea Actions works like GitHub Actions: a workflow file in .gitea/workflows/ defines jobs, and registered runners pick up and execute those jobs. Each runner connects to the Gitea server and polls for work.
Registering a runner
# Download the runner binary (check https://gitea.com/gitea/act_runner/releases for latest)
wget https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/latest/act_runner-linux-amd64
# Register the runner
./act_runner register \
--instance https://gitea.example.com \
--token <REGISTRATION_TOKEN> \
--name my-runner \
--labels ubuntu-22.04
The registration token is available under Site Administration > Actions > Runners.