gce-github-runner

Ephemeral GCE GitHub self-hosted runner.

Usage

jobs:
  create-runner:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      label: ${{ steps.create-runner.outputs.label }}
    steps:
      - id: create-runner
        uses: PluralisResearch/gce-github-runner@main
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GH_SA_TOKEN }}
          project_id: ${{ secrets.GCP_PROJECT_ID }}
          service_account_key: ${{ secrets.GCP_SA_KEY }}
          image_project: ubuntu-os-cloud
          image_family: ubuntu-2204-lts
          max_run_duration: 1h
          github_job_start_ttl_seconds: 300
          instance_labels: createdby=ci,environment=test

  test:
    needs: create-runner
    runs-on: ${{ needs.create-runner.outputs.label }}
    steps:
      - run: echo "This runs on the GCE VM"

• create-runner creates the GCE VM and registers the runner with unique label
• test uses the runner
• the runner VM will be automatically shut down after the workflow via self-hosted runner hook
• max_run_duration provides a platform-enforced deletion deadline for both Spot and standard VMs (default: 3d)
• github_job_start_ttl_seconds deletes a registered runner if no job starts before the deadline (default: 0, disabled)
• instance_labels adds comma-separated GCE labels alongside the action's internal runner labels
• fallback_to_on_demand retries a Spot request as a standard VM only when GCE reports exhausted capacity (default: false)

Inputs

See inputs and descriptions here.

The GCE runner image should have at least:

• gcloud
• git
• (optionally) GitHub Actions Runner (see actions_preinstalled parameter)

Example Workflows

• Test Workflow: Test workflow.

Self-hosted runner security with public repositories

From GitHub's documentation:

We recommend that you only use self-hosted runners with private repositories. This is because forks of your repository can potentially run dangerous code on your self-hosted runner machine by creating a pull request that executes the code in a workflow.

EC2/AWS action

If you need EC2/AWS self-hosted runner, check out machulav/ec2-github-runner.