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act Run Actions locally

Version 0.2.89 · source

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Start here

act -l
List workflows and jobs
act
Run the push event
act pull_request
Run another event
act -j <job>
Run one job
act -n
Dry run, validate only
act -s <NAME>
Pass a secret
act -W <file>
Pick a workflow file
act -P <label>=<image>
Choose the runner image

Concepts

  1. Event push, pull_request ...
  2. Workflows .github/workflows
  3. Jobs filtered by -j / -W
  4. Containers image per runs-on label
What act does with one command

Run

act
Run the push event
act <event>
Run a given event (pull_request, schedule)
act -l
List workflows and jobs for the event
act -j <job>
Run only one job by ID
act -W <path>
Use a workflow file or directory
act -n
Dry run: validate without containers
act -e <event.json>
Supply an event payload file
A pull_request payload needs head.ref and base.ref; a tag push needs ref set to refs/tags/<tag>.
act workflow_dispatch --input <NAME>=<value>
Set a dispatch input
act --input-file <file>
Read inputs from a .env-style file
act --matrix <key>:<value>
Limit matrix to combinations
Cannot add values the workflow does not define; exclude wins over --matrix.
act -g
Draw the workflow graph
act --validate
Validate workflows
act --detect-event
Use the workflow's first event type
act -w
Re-run when local files change
act -C <dir>
Set the working directory
act -a <user>
Set the triggering actor

Secrets and variables

act -s <NAME>
Read secret from env or prompt
Avoids leaving the value in shell history.
act -s <NAME>=<value>
Set a secret inline
act --secret-file <file>
Load secrets from a .env file
act -s GITHUB_TOKEN="$(gh auth token)"
Use the gh CLI token
act --var <NAME>=<value>
Set a vars.* variable
act --var-file <file>
Load variables from a file
act --env <NAME>=<value>
Set an environment variable
act --env-file <file>
Load env from a file
act --insecure-secrets
Show secrets in logs

Images and containers

act -P <label>=<image>
Map a runs-on label to an image
act -P <label>=-self-hosted
Run a label directly on the host
act --pull=false
Use local images, skip pulling
act --container-architecture <os/arch>
Force architecture, e.g. linux/amd64
Handy on Apple silicon; needs Docker API 1.41 or newer.
act -r
Reuse containers to keep state
act -b
Bind-mount the directory, do not copy
act --rm
Remove containers after a failure
act --privileged
Run containers privileged
act --container-options <opts>
Extra docker options for job containers
act --container-cap-add <cap>
Add a kernel capability
act --network <name>
Set the docker network
act --container-daemon-socket <uri>
Docker socket URI, or - to disable
act --use-gitignore=false
Copy gitignored paths too
act --rebuild
Rebuild local action images

Output and offline

act -v
Verbose output
act -q
Hide step output
act --json
Log as JSON
act --log-prefix-job-id
Show job ID, not full name, in logs
act --action-offline-mode
Use cached actions and images
Works after at least one online run.
act --artifact-server-path <dir>
Enable artifact upload/download
The artifact server is off unless a path is set.
act --no-cache-server
Disable the cache server
act --concurrent-jobs <n>
Cap parallel jobs
act --bug-report
Print system info for a report

Configuration

~/.config/act/actrc
User-wide default flags (XDG)
~/.actrc
Home default flags
.actrc
Per-project default flags
One argument per line; comments are not supported. Read in order, then the command line.
Default images for ubuntu-latest
Size Image
Micro node:16-buster-slim
Medium catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest
Large catthehacker/ubuntu:full-latest

Recipes

Pull request check with a token
act pull_request -j test \  -s GITHUB_TOKEN="$(gh auth token)" \  -e pr.json
Project defaults in .actrc
-P ubuntu-latest=catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest--container-architecture=linux/amd64--action-offline-mode
One matrix cell with artifacts
act push --matrix node:20 \  --artifact-server-path $PWD/.artifacts
Skim jobs then run one
act -lact -n -j buildact -j build --secret-file .secrets