nektos/act ↗
Created Dec 7, 2020 · View the nektos/act repository page
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About nektos/act
Act is a command-line tool written in Go that enables developers to run GitHub Actions workflows locally on their machines rather than having to push changes to GitHub to test them. By reading workflow definitions from a project's `.github/workflows/` directory, act uses Docker to create and execute containers that replicate GitHub's hosted runner environment, including matching environment variables and filesystem configurations.
The primary benefits are faster feedback during workflow development and the ability to use GitHub Actions as a general-purpose task runner to replace makefiles or other local automation tools. Rather than committing and pushing code just to test workflow changes, developers can iterate instantly with act's local execution. The tool determines the correct execution path based on workflow dependencies and handles all the Docker orchestration automatically.
Act is actively maintained with a user guide available at nektosact.com and community support through GitHub discussions. The project welcomes contributions and can be built from source using Go 1.20 or later. A Visual Studio Code extension called GitHub Local Actions also exists, allowing developers to manage and run workflows directly within their editor.