what it is

HorseCI is a managed CI service that replaces GitHub Actions runner and dispatcher. You run a worker binary on your machine. We route webhooks to it immediately.

Same YAML. Same workflows. Faster execution.

running the worker

The worker is a single binary. It connects to our dispatcher via WebSocket.

export HORSECI_TOKEN=your_token_here
./horseci-worker

The worker runs in the foreground. Use a process manager to keep it running.

# systemd example
[Unit]
Description=HorseCI Worker
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/horseci-worker
Environment=HORSECI_TOKEN=your_token
Restart=always
User=ci

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

workflow support

HorseCI supports a subset of GitHub Actions workflow syntax.

supported

• on: push, on: pull_request, on: repository_dispatch
• jobs..runs-on (ignored, runs on your worker)
• steps[*].run — shell commands
• steps[*].uses — GitHub Actions (partial)
• env at workflow and job level
• defaults.run.shell, defaults.run.working-directory

not supported

• strategy.matrix
• services (service containers)
• reusable-workflows
• composite actions
• container jobs (use steps[*].uses: docker://... instead)

secrets

Set secrets in your worker environment. The worker passes them to workflows.

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx
export NPM_TOKEN=npm_xxx
./horseci-worker

Reference them in workflows:

steps:
  - run: npm publish
    env:
      NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

Secrets never leave your machine.

caching

HorseCI keeps the git workspace between runs on the same branch. Dependencies persist.

Manual cache control (save/restore actions) is not implemented yet.