Runner
A workflow runner is an execution agent or environment that runs the jobs and steps of an automated workflow or pipeline.
Effective Platform Engineering
A pipeline runner is a preconfigured execution component that runs pipeline jobs with specified tools and packages.
- How it is used
- Supplies a preconfigured execution environment for pipeline jobs while shared pipeline libraries define reusable work.
- How deep it goes
- Distinguishes runners from shared code and outlines a local private-runner experiment, without detailing production runner sizing.
- Examples
- Uses a CircleCI container-agent experiment in which a local Kubernetes cluster runs pipelines for configured projects.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it: create a CircleCI private runner resource locally and configure projects to run pipelines through it.
Learn Docker in a Month of Lunches, Second Edition
A build agent is a machine or hosted worker that executes automated software build jobs.
- How it is used
- Executes automated build steps after repository changes trigger a GitHub Actions workflow.
- How deep it goes
- Explains provisioning, checkout, execution, and cleanup, but does not descend into runner internals.
- Examples
- Demonstrates an Ubuntu runner checking out code and running a PowerShell build script.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure a GitHub Actions job that runs a repository build on an Ubuntu runner.
Read how Learn Docker in a Month of Lunches, Second Edition explains runner →
Related concepts
- workflow jobused by · A workflow job is an executable unit of work that groups tasks or steps with the logic and requirements needed to run them.
- self-hostinguses · Self-hosting is deploying and operating software or services on computing infrastructure controlled or managed by the user or organization.
- runner grouppart of · A runner group is a named collection of GitHub Actions runners that can be targeted and governed together.
- GitHub-hosted runnercontrasts with · A GitHub-hosted runner is a virtual machine managed by GitHub that executes jobs in GitHub Actions workflows.
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