Depot GitHub Actions Runners

Depot provides managed, ephemeral, single-tenant GitHub Actions runners. Drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted runners — change the runs-on label and everything else stays the same.

Requirement: Repository must be owned by a GitHub organization (not a personal account).

Depot runners are not Depot CI

Depot runners keep GitHub Actions as the engine, so the workflow lives in .github/workflows/ and the checks still come from the github-actions app. Depot CI is a different product. It reads .depot/workflows/, which GitHub Actions ignores, and posts its own check runs from one of three Depot apps. Use the depot-ci skill for that one.

Its references/posthog-check-run-semantics.md compares what each engine reports for a skipped, empty-matrix or continue-on-error job, and how GitHub and the Trunk merge queue score those conclusions.

Setup

1. Depot dashboard → GitHub Actions → Connect to GitHub → Install Depot GitHub App
2. For public repos: GitHub org settings → Actions → Runner groups → Default → "Allow public repositories"
3. Update runs-on in your workflow files

Org Context Check for Multi-Org Users

If a user belongs to multiple organizations and expected repos/settings/runners are not visible, verify Depot org context first:

depot org show              # Current org ID
depot org list              # Orgs the user belongs to
depot org switch <org-id>   # Optional: set default org

For commands that support it, pass --org <org-id> to target the org where the workflow/repo lives.

Runner Labels

Use a single label. Format: depot-{os}-{version}[-{arch}][-{size}]

Ubuntu (x86, AMD)

The minutes multiplier is the billing driver: billed minutes = elapsed minutes × multiplier, so larger runners consume your included minutes faster.

Ubuntu 22.04 also available: depot-ubuntu-22.04, depot-ubuntu-22.04-4, etc.

Ubuntu (ARM — Graviton4)

Same sizes and pricing as Intel. Add -arm suffix: depot-ubuntu-24.04-arm, depot-ubuntu-24.04-arm-4, depot-ubuntu-24.04-arm-8, etc.

Windows Server

Windows Server 2022 also available: depot-windows-2022, etc. Windows limitation: No Hyper-V (AWS EC2 limitation), so Docker workloads that require it are unlikely to work.

macOS (Apple M2 on macOS 14/15, M4 on macOS 26)

macOS is NOT fully elastic — fixed pool with FIFO queuing.

Aliases

depot-ubuntu-latest → Ubuntu 24.04, depot-windows-latest → Windows 2025, depot-macos-latest → macOS 26

Migration Example

jobs:
  build:
    # Before:
    # runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    # After:
    runs-on: depot-ubuntu-24.04-4
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Common Mistakes

# ❌ WRONG — multiple labels cause stability issues
runs-on: [self-hosted, depot-ubuntu-24.04]

# ✅ CORRECT — always use a single Depot runner label
runs-on: depot-ubuntu-24.04-4

Caching

Actions using the GitHub Actions cache API automatically use Depot Cache — no config changes needed. This includes actions/cache, actions/setup-node, actions/setup-python, actions/setup-java, and any action using @actions/cache.

Pre-configured build tool caches (zero config on Depot runners):

Cache behavior: repository-scoped, no branch isolation, encrypted, up to 1000 MiB/s throughput, configurable retention (7/14/30 days).

To disable auto-cache: org settings → turn off "Allow Actions jobs to automatically connect to Depot Cache."

For Xcode, the runner sets XCODE_XCCONFIG_FILE only when the job does not supply its own configuration file. Set DEPOT_XCODE_CACHE_ENABLED: '0' to opt out for a job or workflow. Add depot/xcode-compilation-cache-summary@v1 after the build to report cache statistics. Xcode compilation caching is not supported on local workstations. See https://depot.dev/docs/cache/integrations/xcode for build settings and troubleshooting.

Dagger Integration

Deprecated: Dagger Engine support on Depot GitHub Actions Runners is being deprecated and will be removed in a future update. Don't recommend this integration for new workflows.

runs-on: depot-ubuntu-latest,dagger=0.18.4

Launches a dedicated Dagger Engine VM with persistent NVMe cache. Dagger CLI pre-installed. Additional $0.04/min.

Egress Filtering (Linux Only)

Configure in org settings → GitHub Actions Runners → Egress Rules. Set default rule to Allow or Deny, then add specific allow/deny rules for IPs, CIDRs, or hostnames. Deny rules take precedence over Allow rules. Loopback traffic (127.0.0.1, ::1) is always allowed, and Depot auto-allowlists depot.dev domains, GitHub Actions service IPs, and AWS service IPs. Hostnames in rules are resolved and pinned in /etc/hosts. Container builds with depot build work with egress filtering enabled — Depot adds BuildKit machine IPs to the allowlist as they're allocated. Not supported on macOS or Windows. Incompatible with Tailscale.

Access Private Endpoints with Tailscale

Use Tailscale when jobs need to reach private services (internal APIs, databases, private subnets) without static IP allowlists.

How it works on Depot:

• Depot GitHub Actions runners join your tailnet as ephemeral nodes at job start.
• Access is controlled with your Tailscale ACLs (recommended tag: tag:depot-runner).
• No workflow YAML changes are required just to connect runners to private endpoints.

Setup:

1. In Tailscale ACLs, create a runner tag (for example tag:depot-runner) under tagOwners.
2. Create a Tailscale OAuth client with Keys > Auth Keys write scope and choose that tag.
3. In Depot org settings, open Tailscale settings and connect using the OAuth client ID/secret.
4. Add ACLs allowing tag:depot-runner to access target hosts/subnets.

ACL examples:

{
  "acls": [
    {
      "action": "accept",
      "src": ["tag:depot-runner"],
      "dst": ["database-hostname"]
    }
  ]
}

{
  "acls": [
    {
      "action": "accept",
      "src": ["tag:depot-runner"],
      "dst": ["192.0.2.0/24:*"]
    }
  ]
}

Reference docs:

• https://depot.dev/docs/github-actions/how-to-guides/access-private-resources
• https://depot.dev/docs/integrations/tailscale

Dependabot

Enable "Dependabot on self-hosted runners" in GitHub org settings. Jobs auto-run on depot-ubuntu-latest.

Important: OIDC is not supported for Dependabot. Use token: input with a DEPOT_TOKEN secret instead.

SSH Debugging

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3
  - run: npm test

Troubleshooting