GitHub Actions Runner Deployment

This repository deploys a self-hosted GitHub Actions runner for the organization. It uses the myoung34/github-runner image, which automatically registers the runner via a Personal Access Token (PAT).

Architecture & GitOps Workflow

To enable a true GitOps workflow (where merging a Pull Request automatically updates the corresponding Docker container on the host), this runner is configured with elevated host access:

• /var/run/docker.sock: Allows the runner to build images and control the host's Docker Engine (Docker-in-Docker behavior).

Prerequisites

• A working Docker host.
• A GitHub Personal Access Token (Classic) with the admin:org scope (required to register an organization-level runner).

Deployment

1. Prepare the deployment directory:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/github-runner
sudo chown $USER:$USER /opt/github-runner
cd /opt/github-runner

# Clone this repository
git clone git@github.com:sdrwtf-labs/github-runner-deployment.git .

2. Configure the environment variables:

cp .env.example .env

Edit the .env file and insert your GitHub Personal Access Token.

3. Start the service:

docker compose up -d

4. Verify the registration:

Check the logs to ensure the runner successfully authenticated and is listening for jobs:

docker compose logs -f github-runner