Runners # Warm starts Private beta Skip your job’s setup time. Jobs start with your toolchains, packages and Docker images already in place, so their setup steps find their work already done. ## Add one line after your setup Put `vitko-inc/checkpoint@v1` right after your job’s setup steps. Everything before it is saved from runs of your default branch, and later jobs of the repository start from it. ``` steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v5 - uses: actions/setup-node@v4 with: node-version: 22 - run: npm ci - uses: vitko-inc/checkpoint@v1 # everything above is saved - run: npm test ``` Your setup steps still run, but find their work done. On any other runner the step does nothing, so the same workflow runs everywhere, and it never fails your job. ## What is saved - Installed tools and toolchains. - Package manager caches and installed packages in the runner’s home: npm, pnpm, Yarn, pip, uv, cargo, Go, Maven, Gradle and others. - Docker images. Your workspace isn’t saved: `actions/checkout` fetches it fresh in every job. Keep anything your build needs again outside the workspace; most package managers already do. ## When it is saved - Only from runs of your default branch: pushes, manual runs and scheduled runs. - Pull requests, including ones from forks, never save anything. They start from your default branch’s setup and install whatever their changes need. - After a new commit lands on your default branch, its next run saves a fresh setup. Until then, jobs start from the previous one. - Each job gets its own copy. What one job writes is never seen by another job. ## Secrets We remove common credentials and refuse to save a setup that still contains one; see Security for what we can’t detect. - Steps before the checkpoint must not use secrets other than `GITHUB_TOKEN`, including in the workflow’s and job’s `env`. If they do, nothing is saved, the job summary says why, and the job continues normally. Move steps that need secrets, such as registry logins, after the checkpoint. - Common credential files (Docker, npm, pip, git, cloud CLIs, SSH keys and others) are removed before anything is saved, and if anything that looks like a credential remains, nothing is saved. ## Inputs | Input | Default | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | | `token` | `${{ github.token }}` | Reads this run’s workflow file for the secrets check when the repository isn’t checked out. | | `timeout-seconds` | `120` | How long to wait for the setup to be saved before going on without it. | ## Optional: a setup script instead If you’d rather keep setup out of your workflows, add a script at `.vitko/setup.sh` on your default branch. It runs as the job user in a checkout of your repository, with network, and installs what your jobs need. When the script is present, it is used instead of the checkpoint step. ``` #!/usr/bin/env bash set -euo pipefail npm ci npm run build ``` A setup script can’t use Docker yet: pre-pulling or building images in it fails. Use the checkpoint step if you want Docker images saved. Docker works normally in your jobs.