hostwithquantum/setup-runway

A GitHub action to setup the Runway CLI! Questions, issues? Please use discussions or the issue tracker on the repository. If you like what you see here, we appreciate a ⭐ and if you'd subscribe to (our monthly) mailing list and check out the website to stay in the loop!

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This action supports amd64 and arm64 Linux runners.

Quick Start

Tip

API keys are new in Runway CLI v1.45.0 (July, 2026).

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  runway:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v7.0.1
      with:
        persist-credentials: false
        fetch-depth: 0
    - uses: hostwithquantum/setup-runway@v0.6.0
      with:
        api-key: ${{ secrets.RUNWAY_API_KEY }}
    - run: runway whoami

Alternatively, log in with username/password:

- uses: hostwithquantum/setup-runway@v0.6.0
  with:
    username: ${{ secrets.RUNWAY_USERNAME }}
    password: ${{ secrets.RUNWAY_PASSWORD }}
- run: runway whoami

Action Inputs

The currently supported inputs:

option	default value	description
username	empty	username/email for Runway
password	empty	password for Runway
api-key	empty	Runway API key, takes precedence over username/password
application	empty	Runway application (will be created or added)
add-key	false	if set to true, add the ssh key to Runway
setup-ssh	false	if set to true, setup ssh for runway app deploy
log-level	error	debug, info, warn, error
public-key	empty	a public ssh key (from a secret)
private-key	empty	a public ssh key (from a secret)
public-key-location	~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub	ssh public key location
public-key-location	~/.ssh/id_rsa	ssh private key location
version	latest	runway cli version
controller	empty	controller URL for Enterprise installations

Tip

For the Runway CLI version, latest is fine. We strive to never break your workflows. But sometimes BC breaks are necessary. Because they usually involve our client and APIs, using latest helps to keep all interruptions to a minimum.

Important

There's a BC break in this action in v0.5.0, previously the public-key and private-key inputs contained paths. They have been renamed to public-key-location and private-key-location to make their purpose more clear. The new public-key and private-key inputs are optional and contain your (SSH) public and private key if used.

Examples

The following examples show how this action and the Runway CLI can be used in workflows.

Deployments

This is an example workflow which shows Runway CLI setup and then how to use the CLI to deploy your application cool-app.

Once the CLI is setup, you can run all commands and play around with output and so on. To keep it simple, we're only deploying the code. :) Since the application exists already on Runway we use the runway gitremote command to initialize the setup.

# .github/workflows/release.yml
name: release

on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      APP_NAME: cool-app
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v7.0.1
      with:
        persist-credentials: false
        fetch-depth: 0 # this is important
    - uses: hostwithquantum/setup-runway@v0.6.0
      with:
        api-key: ${{ secrets.RUNWAY_API_KEY }}
        application: ${{ env.APP_NAME }}
        private-key: ${{ secrets.PRIVATE_KEY }}
        public-key: ${{ secrets.PUBLIC_KEY }}
    - run: runway app deploy
    - run: runway logout

Creating applications

When you invoke this action with an application input, we'll either create or attach an existing application with that name. By default we create an application on the free tier, but if you need to customize the runway app create, then skip the application input and do this instead in a regular run step.

This examples creates an application on the Pro Plan with persistence enabled:

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
on: pull_request

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: hostwithquantum/setup-runway@v0.6.0
        with:
          api-key: ${{ secrets.RUNWAY_API_KEY }}
          public-key: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_PUBLIC_KEY }}
          private-key: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_PRIVATE_KEY }}
      - run: |
          runway app create \
            -a my-fancy-name \
            -p pro-m-launch \
            --persistence
      - if: always()
        run: runway logout

Running e2e tests

GitHub Actions provides a robust and comprehensive environment to run e2e tests and here's how Runway can help:

The following workflow leverages some of the context in form of the pull-request's number: ${{ github.event.number }}. We'll use this identifier to deploy an application with a unique name.

Once deployed, you can run end-to-end tests against it and in the end, shut it down by deleting the application (and key). :) If you decide to keep the application to have a preview available, you may also do that.

Tip

If you plan to use this feature with e.g. dependabot, then ensure to add the appropriate secrets for dependabot on your repository settings.

# .github/workflows/e2e.yml
name: e2e

on: pull_request

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  deploy_app:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 15
    env:
      APP_NAME: my-app-${{ github.event.number }}
      KEY_NAME: test-key-${{ github.event.number }}
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v7.0.1
      with:
        persist-credentials: false
        fetch-depth: 0 # this is important!
    - name: create an ssh key just for this run
      run: |
        mkdir -p ~/.ssh/
        ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/test-runner -c "${KEY_NAME}" -q -N ""
    - name: install Runway CLI, login and add ssh key
      uses: hostwithquantum/setup-runway@v0.6.0
      with:
        api-key: ${{ secrets.RUNWAY_API_KEY }}
        application: ${{ env.APP_NAME }}
        public-key-location: ~/.ssh/test-runner.pub
        private-key-location: ~/.ssh/test-runner
        add-key: true
        setup-ssh: true
    - name: deploy your application to Runway
      run: runway app deploy
    # this is where your tests run!
    - name: run your e2e tests here
      run: curl https://${APP_NAME}.pqapp.dev/
    # then hopefully you are done :)
    - name: cleanup application
      if: always()
      run : runway app rm -a ${APP_NAME} || true
    - name: cleanup key - this is brute force
      if: always()
      run: runway key rm "${KEY_NAME}" || true
    - name: logout
      if: always()
      run: runway logout

Preview apps

In the previous example, we created an application to run our tests. But another great use-case are preview-apps — they allow you to create a demo of your changes. The following workflow shows how to deletes an application from Runway when a pull-request is closed (merged or closed without merge).

Important

This example assumes that you constructed the application with a stable identifier, e.g. my-app-${{ github.event.number }}. In a pull-request context, the ${{ github.event.number }} is the ID/number of the pull-request.

# .github/workflows/delete-preview.yml
name: delete app

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [closed]

jobs:
  delete:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      APP_NAME: my-app-${{ github.event.number }}
    steps:
    - uses: hostwithquantum/setup-runway@v0.6.0
      with:
        api-key: ${{ secrets.RUNWAY_API_KEY }}
    - run: runway app rm ${APP_NAME}
    - if: always()
      run: runway logout