Gitlab Runner Action

This action starts a gitlab runner and registers it with the given gitlab instance. It can be configured to exit after the first job it receives or after a timeout.

Action Inputs

Input Name	Description	Required	Enum Values	Default Value
gitlab-instance	Gitlab instance	No	N/A	https://gitlab.com/
registration-token	Registration token	Yes	N/A	N/A
name	Runner name	Yes	N/A	N/A
tag-list	Tag list to bind with the runner	Yes	N/A	N/A
docker-image	Docker image used by runner	No	N/A	docker:19.03.12
run-untagged	Parameter that allows or not to pick untagged jobs	No	true or false	true
access-level	Parameter to create or not a protected runner	No	ref_protected or not_protected	not_protected
concurrent	Maximum number of jobs that can run concurrently (automatically set to 1 if exit-after-job is true)	No	N/A	4
timeout	Timeout in seconds for how long the runner should stay active (ignored if exit-after-job is true)	No	N/A	3600
exit-after-job	Exit after first job completes instead of waiting for timeout (forces concurrent to 1)	No	true or false	false

Example Workflows

Exit After Single Job

Exit immediately after completing one job (concurrent is automatically set to 1):

name: Gitlab Runner Service
on: [repository_dispatch]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Gitlab Runner
        uses: onecommons/gitlab-runner-action@main
        with:
          registration-token: "${{ secrets.GITLAB_RUNNER_TOKEN }}"
          name: ${{ github.run_id }}
          tag-list: "crosscicd"
          exit-after-job: "true"  # concurrent will be automatically set to 1

Long-running Runner with Concurrent Jobs

Run multiple jobs concurrently with a 2-hour timeout:

name: Gitlab Runner Service
on: [repository_dispatch]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 130  # Slightly longer than timeout for cleanup
    steps:
      - name: Gitlab Runner
        uses: onecommons/gitlab-runner-action@main
        with:
          registration-token: "${{ secrets.GITLAB_RUNNER_TOKEN }}"
          name: ${{ github.run_id }}
          tag-list: "crosscicd"
          concurrent: "2"
          timeout: "7200"  # 2 hours in seconds

Basic Example with Space Cleanup

This example includes a step for cleaning space and gitlab runner to provide up to 60mb for the runner.

name: Gitlab Runner Service
on: [repository_dispatch]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Maximize Build Space
        uses: easimon/maximize-build-space@master
        with:
          root-reserve-mb: 512
          swap-size-mb: 1024
          remove-dotnet: 'true'
          remove-android: 'true'
          remove-haskell: 'true'

      - name: Gitlab Runner
        uses: onecommons/gitlab-runner-action@main
        with:
          registration-token: "${{ github.event.client_payload.registration_token }}"
          docker-image: "docker:19.03.12"
          name: ${{ github.run_id }}
          tag-list: "crosscicd"

Triggering job via API

curl -X POST \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/dispatches \
  -d '{
    "event_type": "run-gitlab-runner",
    "client_payload": {
      "timeout": "3600",
      "concurrent": "2",
      "tag_list": "my-custom-tag"
    }
  }'