We are happy to announce the release of Gitea Runner 1.0.0.
This is the first stable release of the official Gitea Actions runner under its new name. The project formerly known as act_runner has been renamed to Gitea Runner, with the repository now available at gitea/runner.
Why the rename?
The original act_runner name reflected the project's early implementation history and its relationship with nektos/act. Since then, Gitea Actions and the runner have grown into a core part of the Gitea ecosystem.
The new name makes the purpose clearer: this is the official runner for Gitea Actions.
Note: the last act_runner releases were on the v0.6.x line. Gitea Runner v1.0.0 is an intentional reset and starts a new stable versioning scheme under the new name.
What changed?
The most visible changes are the project, binary, and container image names:
- Repository:
gitea/runner - Binary:
gitea-runner - Download path:
https://dl.gitea.com/gitea-runner/ - Docker image:
gitea/runner
For example, registering and starting a runner now looks like this:
./gitea-runner register
./gitea-runner daemon
Docker users can use the new image name:
docker run \
-e GITEA_INSTANCE_URL=https://gitea.example.com \
-e GITEA_RUNNER_REGISTRATION_TOKEN=<your_token> \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
--name gitea-runner \
gitea/runner:1.0.0
Configuration
Gitea Runner continues to support the familiar registration flow, while encouraging explicit YAML configuration for runner settings.
You can generate a starting configuration with:
./gitea-runner generate-config > config.yaml
Then pass it to the commands that load runner configuration:
./gitea-runner -c config.yaml register
./gitea-runner -c config.yaml daemon
./gitea-runner -c config.yaml cache-server
If you prefer an environment-only setup (no config file), the runner still supports the environment variables shown above (GITEA_INSTANCE_URL and GITEA_RUNNER_REGISTRATION_TOKEN). A config file is the recommended way to manage runner behavior going forward.
Upgrade notes
If you already run act_runner, plan to update scripts, service files, Docker Compose files, Kubernetes manifests, and monitoring references to the new gitea-runner and gitea/runner names.
For many deployments, the migration is a straight rename. For example:
- act_runner daemon
+ gitea-runner daemon
- gitea/act_runner:0.2.x
+ gitea/runner:1.0.0
The old repository URL redirects to the new repository, but new documentation and release artifacts use the new naming.
As always, please test the new runner in your environment before rolling it out broadly, especially if your workflows depend on custom labels, Docker-in-Docker setups, rootless Docker, or external cache configuration.
Download
Pre-built binaries are available from the Gitea Runner downloads page.
The release is also available from the Gitea Runner release page.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who contributed code, testing, bug reports, documentation, and feedback while the runner matured from its first releases to 1.0.0.
We would also like to thank the nektos/act project and contributors, whose work continues to be an important part of the Gitea Actions runner.