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 the depot-code-access app. 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)

Label	CPUs	RAM	Disk	$/min	Minutes multiplier
depot-ubuntu-24.04	2	8 GB	100 GB	$0.004	1x
depot-ubuntu-24.04-4	4	16 GB	130 GB	$0.008	2x
depot-ubuntu-24.04-8	8	32 GB	150 GB	$0.016	4x
depot-ubuntu-24.04-16	16	64 GB	180 GB	$0.032	8x
depot-ubuntu-24.04-32	32	128 GB	200 GB	$0.064	16x
depot-ubuntu-24.04-64	64	256 GB	250 GB	$0.128	32x

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

Label	CPUs	RAM	$/min	Minutes multiplier
depot-windows-2025	2	8 GB	$0.008	2x
depot-windows-2025-4	4	16 GB	$0.016	4x
depot-windows-2025-8 through -64	8–64	32–256 GB	$0.032–$0.256	8x–64x

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)

Label	CPUs	RAM	Disk	$/min
depot-macos-26	8	24 GB	400 GB	$0.08
depot-macos-15 / depot-macos-latest	8	24 GB	400 GB	$0.08
depot-macos-14	8	24 GB	400 GB	$0.08

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 15

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):

Tool	What's pre-configured
Turborepo	TURBO_API env var set — just run turbo build
Bazel	~/.bazelrc pre-populated — just run bazel build //...
sccache	SCCACHE_WEBDAV_ENDPOINT set — use RUSTC_WRAPPER: 'sccache'
Maven	settings.xml pre-populated (cache id depot-cache)
Pants	pants.toml pre-configured — just run pants package ::
moonrepo	Env vars set — just run moon run build

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."

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

Error	Fix
"No space left on device"	OS uses ~70 GB disk; upgrade to larger runner or clean disk in workflow
"Failed to open the device 'kvm'" / "Could not access KVM kernel module"	Runners don't provide /dev/kvm; move KVM/QEMU/Android-emulator jobs to Depot CI, where nested virtualization is enabled by default
"Lost communication with server"	Check status.depot.dev; check org usage caps
"Operation was canceled"	Manual cancel, concurrency cancel-in-progress, or OOM — check memory in dashboard
"Unable to get ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_URL"	Dependabot doesn't support OIDC — use DEPOT_TOKEN secret
Workflows not starting	Verify single runner label; check runner group allows the repo; verify Depot GitHub App permissions
Stuck workflows	Force cancel via GitHub API: POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs/{id}/force-cancel