"Think globally,
act
locally"
Run your GitHub Actions locally! Why would you want to do this? Two reasons:
- Fast Feedback - Rather than having to commit/push every time you want to test out the changes you are making to your
.github/workflows/
files (or for any changes to embedded GitHub actions), you can useact
to run the actions locally. The environment variables and filesystem are all configured to match what GitHub provides. - Local Task Runner - I love make. However, I also hate repeating myself. With
act
, you can use the GitHub Actions defined in your.github/workflows/
to replace yourMakefile
!
When you run act
it reads in your GitHub Actions from .github/workflows/
and determines the set of actions that need to be run. It uses the Docker API to either pull or build the necessary images, as defined in your workflow files and finally determines the execution path based on the dependencies that were defined. Once it has the execution path, it then uses the Docker API to run containers for each action based on the images prepared earlier. The environment variables and filesystem are all configured to match what GitHub provides.
Let's see it in action with a sample repo!
act
depends on docker
to run workflows.
If you are using macOS, please be sure to follow the steps outlined in Docker Docs for how to install Docker Desktop for Mac.
If you are using Windows, please follow steps for installing Docker Desktop on Windows.
If you are using Linux, you will need to install Docker Engine.
act
is currently not supported with podman
or other container backends (it might work, but it's not guaranteed). Please see #303 for updates.
To install with Homebrew, run:
brew install act
Alternatively, you can use the following:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nektos/act/master/install.sh | sudo bash
If you are running Windows, download the latest release and add the binary into your PATH. If you are using Chocolatey then run:
choco install act-cli
If you are using Scoop then run:
scoop install act
If you are running Arch Linux, you can install the act package with your favorite package manager:
yay -S act
If you are using NixOS or the Nix package manager on another platform you can install act globally by running
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.act
or in a shell by running
nix-shell -p act
If you have Go 1.16+, you can install latest released version of act
directly from source by running:
go install github.com/nektos/act@latest
or if you want to install latest unreleased version:
go install github.com/nektos/act@master
# Command structure:
act [<event>] [options]
If no event name passed, will default to "on: push"
# List the actions for the default event:
act -l
# List the actions for a specific event:
act workflow_dispatch -l
# Run the default (`push`) event:
act
# Run a specific event:
act pull_request
# Run a specific job:
act -j test
# Run in dry-run mode:
act -n
# Enable verbose-logging (can be used with any of the above commands)
act -v
When running act
for the first time, it will ask you to choose image to be used as default.
It will save that information to ~/.actrc
, please refer to Configuration for more information about .actrc
and to Runners for information about used/available Docker images.
-a, --actor string user that triggered the event (default "nektos/act")
-b, --bind bind working directory to container, rather than copy
--container-architecture string Architecture which should be used to run containers, e.g.: linux/amd64. If not specified, will use host default architecture. Requires Docker server API Version 1.41+. Ignored on earlier Docker server platforms.
--defaultbranch string the name of the main branch
--detect-event Use first event type from workflow as event that triggered the workflow
-C, --directory string working directory (default ".")
-n, --dryrun dryrun mode
--env stringArray env to make available to actions with optional value (e.g. --e myenv=foo or -s myenv)
--env-file string environment file to read and use as env in the containers (default ".env")
-e, --eventpath string path to event JSON file
--github-instance string GitHub instance to use. Don't use this if you are not using GitHub Enterprise Server. (default "github.com")
-g, --graph draw workflows
-h, --help help for act
--insecure-secrets NOT RECOMMENDED! Doesn't hide secrets while printing logs.
-j, --job string run job
-l, --list list workflows
-P, --platform stringArray custom image to use per platform (e.g. -P ubuntu-18.04=nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04)
--privileged use privileged mode
-p, --pull pull docker image(s) even if already present
-q, --quiet disable logging of output from steps
-r, --reuse reuse action containers to maintain state
-s, --secret stringArray secret to make available to actions with optional value (e.g. -s mysecret=foo or -s mysecret)
--secret-file string file with list of secrets to read from (e.g. --secret-file .secrets) (default ".secrets")
--use-gitignore Controls whether paths specified in .gitignore should be copied into container (default true)
--userns string user namespace to use
-v, --verbose verbose output
-w, --watch watch the contents of the local repo and run when files change
-W, --workflows string path to workflow file(s) (default "./.github/workflows/")
A MODULE_NOT_FOUND
during docker cp
command #228 can happen if you are relying on local changes that have not been pushed. This can get triggered if the action is using a path, like:
- name: test action locally
uses: ./
In this case, you must use actions/checkout@v2
with a path that has the same name as your repository. If your repository is called my-action, then your checkout step would look like:
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
path: "my-action"
If the path:
value doesn't match the name of the repository, a MODULE_NOT_FOUND
will be thrown.
GitHub Actions offers managed virtual environments for running workflows. In order for act
to run your workflows locally, it must run a container for the runner defined in your workflow file. Here are the images that act
uses for each runner type and size:
GitHub Runner | Micro Docker Image | Medium Docker Image | Large Docker Image |
---|---|---|---|
ubuntu-latest |
node:12.20.1-buster-slim |
catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest |
catthehacker/ubuntu:full-20.04 |
ubuntu-20.04 |
node:12.20.1-buster-slim |
catthehacker/ubuntu:act-20.04 |
catthehacker/ubuntu:full-20.04 |
ubuntu-18.04 |
node:12.20.1-buster-slim |
catthehacker/ubuntu:act-18.04 |
nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04 |
ubuntu-16.04 |
node:12.20.1-stretch-slim |
catthehacker/ubuntu:act-16.04 |
unavailable |
Below platforms are currently unsupported and won't work (see issue #97)
windows-latest
windows-2019
macos-latest
macos-10.15
Please see IMAGES.md for more information about the Docker images that can be used with act
These default images do not contain all the tools that GitHub Actions offers by default in their runners.
Many things can work improperly or not at all while running those image.
Additionally, some software might still not work even if installed properly, since GitHub Actions are running in fully virtualized machines while act
is using Docker containers (e.g. Docker does not support running systemd
).
In case of any problems please create issue in respective repository (issues with act
in this repository, issues with nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04
in nektos/act-environments
and issues with any image from user catthehacker
in catthehacker/docker_images
)
If you need an environment that works just like the corresponding GitHub runner then consider using an image provided by nektos/act-environments:
nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04
- built from the Packer file GitHub uses in actions/virtual-environments.
*** WARNING - this image is >18GB 😱***
catthehacker/ubuntu:full-20.04
- built from Dockerfile based on the Packer template from actions/virtual-environments. This image size is about61GB
unpacked (23GB
compressed) but contains more recent software versions (as of date of build).
To use a different image for the runner, use the -P
option.
act -P <platform>=<docker-image>
If your workflow uses ubuntu-18.04
, consider below line as an example for changing Docker image used to run that workflow:
act -P ubuntu-18.04=nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04
If you use multiple platforms in your workflow, you have to specify them to change which image is used.
For example, if your workflow uses ubuntu-18.04
, ubuntu-16.04
and ubuntu-latest
, specify all platforms like below
act -P ubuntu-18.04=nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04 -P ubuntu-latest=ubuntu:latest -P ubuntu-16.04=node:12.20.1-buster-slim
To run act
with secrets, you can enter them interactively, supply them as environment variables or load them from a file. The following options are available for providing secrets:
act -s MY_SECRET=somevalue
- usesomevalue
as the value forMY_SECRET
.act -s MY_SECRET
- check for an environment variable namedMY_SECRET
and use it if it exists. If the environment variable is not defined, prompt the user for a value.act --secret-file my.secrets
- load secrets values frommy.secrets
file.- secrets file format is the same as
.env
format
- secrets file format is the same as
You can provide default configuration flags to act
by either creating a ./.actrc
or a ~/.actrc
file. Any flags in the files will be applied before any flags provided directly on the command line. For example, a file like below will always use the nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04
image for the ubuntu-latest
runner:
# sample .actrc file
-P ubuntu-latest=nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04
Additionally, act supports loading environment variables from an .env
file. The default is to look in the working directory for the file but can be overridden by:
act --env-file my.env
.env
:
MY_ENV_VAR=MY_ENV_VAR_VALUE
MY_2ND_ENV_VAR="my 2nd env var value"
Act adds a special environment variable ACT
that can be used to skip a step that you
don't want to run locally. E.g. a step that posts a Slack message or bumps a version number.
- name: Some step
if: ${{ !env.ACT }}
run: |
...
Every GitHub event is accompanied by a payload. You can provide these events in JSON format with the --eventpath
to simulate specific GitHub events kicking off an action. For example:
{
"pull_request": {
"head": {
"ref": "sample-head-ref"
},
"base": {
"ref": "sample-base-ref"
}
}
}
act -e pull-request.json
Act will properly provide github.head_ref
and github.base_ref
to the action as expected.
Act supports using and authenticating against private GitHub Enterprise servers.
To use your custom GHE server, set the CLI flag --github-instance
to your hostname (e.g. github.company.com
).
Please note that if your GHE server requires authentication, we will use the secret provided via GITHUB_TOKEN
.
Please also see the official documentation for GitHub actions on GHE for more information on how to use actions.
Need help? Ask on Gitter!
Want to contribute to act? Awesome! Check out the contributing guidelines to get involved.
- Install Go tools 1.16+ - (https://golang.org/doc/install)
- Clone this repo
git clone git@github.com:nektos/act.git
- Run unit tests with
make test
- Build and install:
make install