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).

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

Runner Labels

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

Ubuntu (Intel x86 — AMD EPYC)

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

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
depot-windows-2025	2	8 GB	$0.008
depot-windows-2025-4	4	16 GB	$0.016
depot-windows-2025-8 through -64	8–64	32–256 GB	$0.032–$0.256

Windows Server 2022 also available: depot-windows-2022, etc. Windows limitation: No Hyper-V. Docker does not work on Windows runners.

macOS (Apple M2)

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

macOS is NOT fully elastic — fixed pool with FIFO queuing. Startup plan+ only.

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

runs-on: depot-ubuntu-latest,dagger=0.15.1

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. 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
"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