---
title: 'Forgejo Runner installation guide'
license: 'CC-BY-SA-4.0'
---

The `Forgejo Runner` is a daemon that fetches workflows to run from a Forgejo instance, executes them, sends back with the logs and ultimately reports its success or failure.

It needs to be installed separately from the main Forgejo instance. For security reasons it is **not recommended** to install the runner on the same machine as the main instance.

Each `Forgejo Runner` release is published for all supported architectures as:

- [binaries](https://data.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/releases)
- [OCI images](https://data.forgejo.org/forgejo/-/packages/container/runner/versions)

## Binary installation

### Downloading and installing the binary

Download the latest [binary release](https://data.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/releases) and verify its signature:

```shell

$ export RUNNER_VERSION=$(curl -X 'GET' https://data.forgejo.org/api/v1/repos/forgejo/runner/releases/latest | jq .name -r | cut -c 2-)
$ wget -O forgejo-runner https://data.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/releases/download/v${RUNNER_VERSION}/forgejo-runner-${RUNNER_VERSION}-linux-amd64
$ chmod +x forgejo-runner
$ wget -O forgejo-runner.asc https://data.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/releases/download/v${RUNNER_VERSION}/forgejo-runner-${RUNNER_VERSION}-linux-amd64.asc
$ gpg --keyserver keys.openpgp.org --recv EB114F5E6C0DC2BCDD183550A4B61A2DC5923710
$ gpg --verify forgejo-runner.asc forgejo-runner
Good signature from "Forgejo <contact@forgejo.org>"
		aka "Forgejo Releases <release@forgejo.org>"
```

Next, copy the downloaded binary to `/usr/local/bin` and make it executable:

```shell
$ cp forgejo-runner /usr/local/bin/forgejo-runner
$ chmod +x /usr/local/bin/forgejo-runner
```

You should now be able to test the runner by running `forgejo-runner -v`:

```
$ forgejo-runner -v
forgejo-runner version v4.0.0
```

### Setting up the runner user

Set up the user to run the daemon:

```shell
$ useradd --create-home runner
```

If the runner will be using Docker or Podman, ensure the `runner` user had access to the docker/podman socket.
If you are using Docker, run:

```shell
$ usermod -aG docker runner
```

### Setting up the container environment

The `Forgejo runner` relies on application containers (Docker, Podman, etc.) or system containers (LXC) to execute a workflow in an isolated environment. They need to be installed and configured independently.

- **Docker:**
  See the [Docker installation](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/) documentation for more information.

- **Podman:**
  While Podman is generally compatible with Docker, it does not create a socket for managing containers by default (because it doesn't usually need one).

  If the Forgejo runner complains about "daemon Docker Engine socket not found", or "cannot ping the docker daemon", you can use Podman to provide a Docker compatible socket from an unprivileged user and pass that socket on to the runner by executing:

  ```shell
  $ podman system service -t 0 &
  $ DOCKER_HOST=unix://${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/podman/podman.sock ./forgejo-runner daemon
  ```

- **LXC:**
  For jobs to run in LXC containers, the `Forgejo runner` needs passwordless sudo access for all `lxc-*` commands on a Debian GNU/Linux `bookworm` system where [LXC](https://linuxcontainers.org/lxc/) is installed. The [LXC helpers](https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/lxc-helpers/) can be used as follows to create a suitable container:

  ```shell
  $ git clone https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/lxc-helpers
  $ sudo cp -a lxc-helpers/lxc-helpers{,-lib}.sh /usr/local/bin
  $ lxc-helpers.sh lxc_container_create myrunner
  $ lxc-helpers.sh lxc_container_start myrunner
  $ lxc-helpers.sh lxc_container_user_install myrunner 1000 debian
  ```

  > **NOTE:** Multiarch [Go](https://go.dev/) builds and [binfmt](https://github.com/tonistiigi/binfmt) need `bookworm` to produce and test binaries on a single machine for people who do not have access to dedicated hardware. If this is not needed, installing the `Forgejo runner` on `bullseye` will also work.

  The `Forgejo runner` can then be installed and run within the `myrunner` container.

  ```shell
  $ lxc-helpers.sh lxc_container_run forgejo-runners -- sudo --user debian bash
  $ sudo apt-get install docker.io wget gnupg2
  $ wget -O forgejo-runner https://data.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/releases/download/v4.0.0/forgejo-runner-amd64
  ...
  ```

  > **Warning:** LXC containers do not provide a level of security that makes them safe for potentially malicious users to run jobs. They provide an excellent isolation for jobs that may accidentally damage the system they run on.

- **Host:**
  There is no requirement for jobs that run directly on the host.

  > **Warning:** there is no isolation at all and a single job can permanently destroy the host.

### Registering the runner

To receive tasks from the Forgejo instance, the runner needs to be registered.

To register the runner, switch user to the `runner` user account, and return to the home directory:

```shell
$ sudo su runner
$ whoami
runner
$ cd ~
$ pwd
/home/runner
```

From here, follow the [registration instructions](#standard-registration).

### Configuration

The default configuration for the runner can be
displayed with `forgejo-runner generate-config`, stored in a
`config.yml` file, modified and used instead of the default with the
`--config` flag.

```yaml
$ forgejo-runner generate-config > config.yml
# Example configuration file, it's safe to copy this as the default config file without any modification.

# You don't have to copy this file to your instance,
# just run `forgejo-runner generate-config > config.yaml` to generate a config file.

log:
  # The level of logging, can be trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal
  level: info

runner:
  # Where to store the registration result.
  file: .runner
  # Execute how many tasks concurrently at the same time.
  capacity: 1
  # Extra environment variables to run jobs.
  envs:
    A_TEST_ENV_NAME_1: a_test_env_value_1
    A_TEST_ENV_NAME_2: a_test_env_value_2
  # Extra environment variables to run jobs from a file.
  # It will be ignored if it's empty or the file doesn't exist.
  env_file: .env
  # The timeout for a job to be finished.
  # Please note that the Forgejo instance also has a timeout (3h by default) for the job.
  # So the job could be stopped by the Forgejo instance if it's timeout is shorter than this.
  timeout: 3h
  # The timeout for the runner to wait for running jobs to finish when
  # shutting down because a TERM or INT signal has been received.  Any
  # running jobs that haven't finished after this timeout will be
  # cancelled.
  # If unset or zero the jobs will be cancelled immediately.
  shutdown_timeout: 3h
  # Whether skip verifying the TLS certificate of the instance.
  insecure: false
  # The timeout for fetching the job from the Forgejo instance.
  fetch_timeout: 5s
  # The interval for fetching the job from the Forgejo instance.
  fetch_interval: 2s
  # The interval for reporting the job status and logs to the Forgejo instance.
  report_interval: 1s
  # The labels of a runner are used to determine which jobs the runner can run, and how to run them.
  # Like: ["macos-arm64:host", "ubuntu-latest:docker://node:20-bookworm", "ubuntu-22.04:docker://node:20-bookworm"]
  # If it's empty when registering, it will ask for inputting labels.
  # If it's empty when executing the `daemon`, it will use labels in the `.runner` file.
  labels: []

cache:
  # Enable cache server to use actions/cache.
  enabled: true
  # The directory to store the cache data.
  # If it's empty, the cache data will be stored in $HOME/.cache/actcache.
  dir: ""
  # The host of the cache server.
  # It's not for the address to listen, but the address to connect from job containers.
  # So 0.0.0.0 is a bad choice, leave it empty to detect automatically.
  host: ""
  # The port of the cache server.
  # 0 means to use a random available port.
  port: 0
  # The external cache server URL. Valid only when enable is true.
  # If it's specified, it will be used to set the ACTIONS_CACHE_URL environment variable. The URL should generally end with "/".
  # Otherwise it will be set to the the URL of the internal cache server.
  external_server: ""

container:
  # Specifies the network to which the container will connect.
  # Could be host, bridge or the name of a custom network.
  # If it's empty, create a network automatically.
  network: ""
  # Whether to create networks with IPv6 enabled. Requires the Docker daemon to be set up accordingly.
  # Only takes effect if "network" is set to "".
  enable_ipv6: false
  # Whether to use privileged mode or not when launching task containers (privileged mode is required for Docker-in-Docker).
  privileged: false
  # Additional options to be used when the container is started (e.g., --add-host=my.forgejo.url:host-gateway).
  options: ""
  # The parent directory of a job's working directory.
  # If it's empty, /workspace will be used.
  workdir_parent:
  # Volumes (including bind mounts) can be mounted to containers. Glob syntax is supported, see https://github.com/gobwas/glob
  # You can specify multiple volumes. If the sequence is empty, no volumes can be mounted.
  # For example, if you only allow containers to mount the `data` volume and all the json files in `/src`, you should change the config to:
  # valid_volumes:
  #   - data
  #   - /src/*.json
  # If you want to allow any volume, please use the following configuration:
  # valid_volumes:
  #   - '**'
  valid_volumes: []
  # overrides the docker client host with the specified one.
  # If "-" or "", an available docker host will automatically be found.
  # If "automount", an available docker host will automatically be found and mounted in the job container (e.g. /var/run/docker.sock).
  # Otherwise the specified docker host will be used and an error will be returned if it doesn't work.
  docker_host: "-"
  # Pull docker image(s) even if already present
  force_pull: false
  # Rebuild local docker image(s) even if already present
  force_rebuild: false

host:
  # The parent directory of a job's working directory.
  # If it's empty, $HOME/.cache/act/ will be used.
  workdir_parent:
```

Note: `container.docker_host = "automount"` is only available for
forgejo-runner >= 5.0.3. For forgejo-runner < 5.0.3, it must be explicitly
set to an empty string. \
Note: `container.force_rebuild` is only available for
forgejo-runner >= 6.1.0. For forgejo-runner < 6.1.0, it defaults to `false`

#### Cache configuration

Some actions such as https://data.forgejo.org/actions/cache or
https://data.forgejo.org/actions/setup-go can communicate with the
`Forgejo runner` to save and restore commonly used files such as
compilation dependencies. They are stored as compressed tar archives,
fetched when a job starts and saved when it completes.

If the machine has a fast disk, uploading the cache when the job
starts may significantly reduce the bandwidth required to download
and rebuild dependencies.

If the machine on which the `Forgejo runner` is running has a slow
disk and plenty of CPU and bandwidth, it may be better to not activate
the cache as it can slow down the execution time.

### Starting the runner

After the runner has been registered, it can be started by running `forgejo-runner daemon` as the `runner` user, in the home directory:

```shell
$ whoami
runner
$ pwd
/home/runner
$ forgejo-runner daemon
INFO[2024-09-14T19:19:14+02:00] Starting runner daemon
```

### Running as a systemd service

To automatically start the runner when the system starts, copy [this file](https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/src/branch/main/contrib/forgejo-runner.service) to `/etc/systemd/system/forgejo-runner.service`.

Then run `systemctl daemon-reload` to reload the unit files. Run `systemctl start forgejo-runner.service` to test the new service. If everything works, run `systemctl enable forgejo-runner.service` to enable auto-starting the service on boot.

Use `journalctl -u forgejo-runner.service` to read the runner logs.

## OCI image installation

The [OCI images](https://data.forgejo.org/forgejo/-/packages/container/runner/versions)
are built from the Dockerfile which is [found in the source directory](https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/src/branch/main/Dockerfile). It contains the `forgejo-runner` binary.

```shell
$ docker run --rm data.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner:4.0.0 forgejo-runner --version
forgejo-runner version v4.0.0
```

It does not run as root:

```shell
$ docker run --rm data.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner:4.0.0 id
uid=1000 gid=1000 groups=1000
```

One way to run the Docker image is via Docker Compose. To do so, first prepare a `data` directory with non-root permissions (in this case, we pick `1001:1001`):

```shell
#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -e

mkdir -p data
touch data/.runner
mkdir -p data/.cache

chown -R 1001:1001 data/.runner
chown -R 1001:1001 data/.cache
chmod 775 data/.runner
chmod 775 data/.cache
chmod g+s data/.runner
chmod g+s data/.cache
```

After running this script with `bash setup.sh`, define the following `docker-compose.yml`:

```yaml
version: '3.8'

services:
  docker-in-docker:
    image: docker:dind
    container_name: 'docker_dind'
    privileged: 'true'
    command: ['dockerd', '-H', 'tcp://0.0.0.0:2375', '--tls=false']
    restart: 'unless-stopped'

  gitea:
    image: 'data.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner:4.0.0'
    links:
      - docker-in-docker
    depends_on:
      docker-in-docker:
        condition: service_started
    container_name: 'runner'
    environment:
      DOCKER_HOST: tcp://docker-in-docker:2375
    # User without root privileges, but with access to `./data`.
    user: 1001:1001
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
    restart: 'unless-stopped'

    command: '/bin/sh -c "while : ; do sleep 1 ; done ;"'
```

Here, we're not running the `forgejo-runner daemon` yet because we need to register it first. Please note that in a recent install of docker `docker-compose` is not a separate command but should be run as `docker compose`.

Follow the [registration instructions](#standard-registration) below by starting the `runner` service with `docker-compose up -d` and entering it via:

```shell
docker exec -it runner /bin/sh
```

In this shell, run the `forgejo-runner register` command as described below. After that is done, take the service down again with `docker-compose down` and modify the `command` to:

```yaml
command: '/bin/sh -c "sleep 5; forgejo-runner daemon"'
```

Here, the sleep allows the `docker-in-docker` service to start up before the `forgejo-runner daemon` is started.

More [docker compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/) examples [are provided](https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/src/branch/main/examples/docker-compose) to demonstrate how to install the OCI image to successfully run a workflow.

## Standard registration

The `Forgejo runner` needs to connect to a `Forgejo` instance and must be registered before doing so. It will give it permission to read the repositories and send back information to `Forgejo` such as the logs or its status.

A special kind of token is needed and can be obtained from the `Create new runner` button:

- in `/admin/actions/runners` to accept workflows from all repositories.
- in `/org/{org}/settings/actions/runners` to accept workflows from all repositories within the organization.
- in `/user/settings/actions/runners` to accept workflows from all repositories of the logged in user
- in `/{owner}/{repository}/settings/actions/runners` to accept workflows from a single repository.

![Screenshot showing runner registration popup](../_images/user/actions/runners-add.png)

To register the runner, execute `forgejo-runner register` and fill in the prompts. For example:

```shell
$ forgejo-runner register
INFO Registering runner, arch=arm64, os=linux, version=v4.0.0.
WARN Runner in user-mode.
INFO Enter the Forgejo instance URL (for example, https://next.forgejo.org/):
https://code.forgejo.org/
INFO Enter the runner token:
6om01axzegBu98YCpsFtda4Go2DuJe7BEepzz2F3HY
INFO Enter the runner name (if set empty, use hostname: runner-host):
my-forgejo-runner
INFO Enter the runner labels, leave blank to use the default labels (comma-separated, for example, ubuntu-20.04:docker://node:20-bookworm,ubuntu-18.04:docker://node:20-bookworm):

INFO Registering runner, name=my-forgejo-runner, instance=https://code.forgejo.org/, labels=[docker:docker://node:20-bullseye].
DEBU Successfully pinged the Forgejo instance server
INFO Runner registered successfully.
```

This will create a `.runner` file in the current directory that looks like:

```json
{
  "WARNING": "This file is automatically generated by act-runner. Do not edit it manually unless you know what you are doing. Removing this file will cause act runner to re-register as a new runner.",
  "id": 42,
  "uuid": "d2ax6368-9c20-4dy0-9a5a-e09c53854zb5",
  "name": "my-forgejo-runner",
  "token": "864e6019009e1635d98adf3935b305d32494d42a",
  "address": "https://code.forgejo.org/",
  "labels": ["docker:docker://node:20-bullseye"]
}
```

To decide which labels to use, see [Choosing labels](../actions/#choosing-labels).

The same token can be used multiple times to register any number of runners, independent of each other.

## Offline registration

When Infrastructure as Code (Ansible, kubernetes, etc.) is used to deploy and configure both Forgejo and the Forgejo runner, it may be more convenient for it to generate a secret and share it with both.

The `forgejo forgejo-cli actions register --secret <secret>` subcommand can be used to register the runner with the Forgejo instance and the `forgejo-runner create-runner-file --secret <secret>` subcommand can be used to configure the Forgejo runner with the credentials that will allow it to start picking up tasks from the Forgejo instances as soon as it comes online.

For instance, on the machine running Forgejo:

```sh
$ forgejo forgejo-cli actions register --name runner-name --scope myorganization \
    --secret 7c31591e8b67225a116d4a4519ea8e507e08f71f
```

and on the machine on which the Forgejo runner is installed:

```sh
$ forgejo-runner create-runner-file --instance https://example.conf \
        --secret 7c31591e8b67225a116d4a4519ea8e507e08f71f
```

The secret must be a 40-character long string of hexadecimal numbers. The first 16 characters will be used as an identifier for the runner, while the rest is the actual secret. It is possible to update the secret of an existing runner by running the command again on the Forgejo machine, with the last 24 characters updated.

For instance, the command below would change the secret set by the previous command:

```sh
$ forgejo forgejo-cli actions register --name runner-name --scope myorganization \
    --secret 7c31591e8b67225a84e8e06633b9578e793664c3
#              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This part is identical
```

The registration command on the Forgejo side is mostly idempotent, with the exception of the runner labels. If the command is run without `--labels`, they will be reset, and the runner won't set them back until it is restarted. The `--keep-labels` option can be used to preserve the existing labels.

## Enabling IPv6 in Docker & Podman networks

When a `Forgejo runner` creates its own Docker or Podman networks, IPv6 is not enabled by default, and must be enabled explicitly in the `Forgejo runner` configuration.

**Docker only**: The Docker daemon requires additional configuration to enable IPv6. To make use of IPv6 with Docker, you need to provide a `/etc/docker/daemon.json` configuration file with at least the following keys:

```json
{
  "ipv6": true,
  "experimental": true,
  "ip6tables": true,
  "fixed-cidr-v6": "fd00:d0ca:1::/64",
  "default-address-pools": [
    { "base": "172.17.0.0/16", "size": 24 },
    { "base": "fd00:d0ca:2::/104", "size": 112 }
  ]
}
```

Afterwards restart the Docker daemon with `systemctl restart docker.service`.

> **NOTE**: These are example values. While this setup should work out of the box, it may not meet your requirements. Please refer to the Docker documentation regarding [enabling IPv6](https://docs.docker.com/config/daemon/ipv6/#use-ipv6-for-the-default-bridge-network) and [allocating IPv6 addresses to subnets dynamically](https://docs.docker.com/config/daemon/ipv6/#dynamic-ipv6-subnet-allocation).

**Docker & Podman**:
To test IPv6 connectivity in `Forgejo runner`-created networks, create a small workflow such as the following:

```yaml
---
on: push
jobs:
  ipv6:
    runs-on: docker
    steps:
      - run: |
          apt update; apt install --yes curl
          curl -s -o /dev/null http://ipv6.google.com
```

If you run this action with `forgejo-runner exec`, you should expect this job fail:

```shellsession
$ forgejo-runner exec
...
| curl: (7) Couldn't connect to server
[ipv6.yml/ipv6]   ❌  Failure - apt update; apt install --yes curl
curl -s -o /dev/null http://ipv6.google.com
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] exitcode '7': failure
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] Cleaning up services for job ipv6
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] Cleaning up container for job ipv6
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] Cleaning up network for job ipv6, and network name is: FORGEJO-ACTIONS-TASK-push_WORKFLOW-ipv6-yml_JOB-ipv6-network
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] 🏁  Job failed
```

To actually enable IPv6 with `forgejo-runner exec`, the flag `--enable-ipv6` must be provided. If you run this again with `forgejo-runner exec --enable-ipv6`, the job should succeed:

```shellsession
$ forgejo-runner exec --enable-ipv6
...
[ipv6.yml/ipv6]   ✅  Success - Main apt update; apt install --yes curl
curl -s -o /dev/null http://ipv6.google.com
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] Cleaning up services for job ipv6
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] Cleaning up container for job ipv6
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] Cleaning up network for job ipv6, and network name is: FORGEJO-ACTIONS-TASK-push_WORKFLOW-ipv6-yml_JOB-ipv6-network
[ipv6.yml/ipv6] 🏁  Job succeeded
```

Finally, if this test was successful, enable IPv6 in the `config.yml` file of the `Forgejo runner` daemon and restart the daemon:

```yaml
container:
  enable_ipv6: true
```

Now, `Forgejo runner` will create networks with IPv6 enabled, and workflow containers will be assigned addresses from the pools defined in the Docker daemon configuration.

## Packaging

### NixOS

A [`forgejo-runner`](https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=forgejo-runner&type=packages&query=forgejo-runner) package is available for Nix.
As NixOS service module [`services.gitea-actions-runner.*`](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=unstable&type=options&query=services.gitea-actions-runner) can be used.

If application containers are to be used (Docker or Podman), one of `virtualisation.docker.enable` or `virtualisation.podman.enable` must also be set to `true`.

An example service definition might look like this:

```nix
services.gitea-actions-runner = {
  package = pkgs.forgejo-runner;
  instances.my-forgejo-instance = {
    enable = true;
    name = "my-forgejo-runner-01";
    token = "<registration-token>";
    url = "https://code.forgejo.org/";
    labels = [
      "node-22:docker://node:22-bookworm"
      "nixos-latest:docker://nixos/nix"
    ];
    settings = { ... };
  };
```

The runner configuration can be specified in `services.gitea-actions-runner.instances.<instance>.settings` as per [Configuration](#configuration).

IPv6 support is not enabled by default for docker. The following snippet enables this.

```nix
virtualisation.docker = {
  daemon.settings = {
    fixed-cidr-v6 = "fd00::/80";
    ipv6 = true;
  };
};
```

If you would like to use docker runners in combination with [cache actions](#cache-configuration), be sure to add docker bridge interfaces "br-\*" to the firewalls' trusted interfaces:

```nix
networking.firewall.trustedInterfaces = [ "br-+" ];
```
