How to deploy on Linux with Docker

On Linux, elastic-fruit-runner runs inside a container and spawns ephemeral runner containers on the host’s Docker engine via a mounted socket.

Docker Compose with config file

Create a config.yaml (see configuration reference):

orgs:
  - org: your-org
    auth:
      pat_token: ghp_xxx
    runner_group: Default
    runner_sets:
      # Linux arm64 runners
      - name: efr-linux-arm64
        backend: docker
        image: ghcr.io/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-dind:latest
        labels: [self-hosted, linux, arm64]
        max_runners: 4
        platform: linux/arm64

      # Linux amd64 runners (Rosetta 2 emulation on Apple Silicon)
      - name: efr-linux-amd64
        backend: docker
        image: ghcr.io/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-dind:latest
        labels: [self-hosted, linux, amd64]
        max_runners: 4
        platform: linux/amd64

idle_timeout: 15m

docker-compose.yaml

services:
  elastic-fruit-runner:
    image: ghcr.io/boring-design/elastic-fruit-runner:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - ./config.yaml:/etc/elastic-fruit-runner/config.yaml:ro

docker compose up -d

Docker Compose with GitHub App auth

config.yaml

orgs:
  - org: your-org
    auth:
      github_app:
        client_id: Iv1.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        installation_id: 12345678
        private_key_path: /etc/efr/private-key.pem
    runner_group: Default
    runner_sets:
      # Linux arm64 runners
      - name: efr-linux-arm64
        backend: docker
        image: ghcr.io/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-dind:latest
        labels: [self-hosted, linux, arm64]
        max_runners: 4
        platform: linux/arm64

      # Linux amd64 runners (Rosetta 2 emulation on Apple Silicon)
      - name: efr-linux-amd64
        backend: docker
        image: ghcr.io/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-dind:latest
        labels: [self-hosted, linux, amd64]
        max_runners: 4
        platform: linux/amd64

idle_timeout: 15m

docker-compose.yaml

services:
  elastic-fruit-runner:
    image: ghcr.io/boring-design/elastic-fruit-runner:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - ./config.yaml:/etc/elastic-fruit-runner/config.yaml:ro
      - ./private-key.pem:/etc/efr/private-key.pem:ro

How it works

Host Docker Engine
├── elastic-fruit-runner container (long-running daemon)
│   └── polls GitHub Scale Set API for jobs
├── efr-linux-arm64-xxx container (ephemeral, one per job)
├── efr-linux-amd64-xxx container (ephemeral, one per job)
└── ...

The daemon container mounts the host’s Docker socket (/var/run/docker.sock). When a job arrives, it creates a sibling container (not nested) on the host engine. Each runner container is destroyed after the job completes.

View logs

docker logs -f elastic-fruit-runner

# With docker compose
docker compose logs -f elastic-fruit-runner

# Filter errors with jq (logs are JSON)
docker logs elastic-fruit-runner 2>&1 | jq 'select(.level == "ERROR")'

Update

docker pull ghcr.io/boring-design/elastic-fruit-runner:latest
docker compose up -d

systemd integration (optional)

If you prefer systemd to manage the container lifecycle:

/etc/systemd/system/elastic-fruit-runner.service

[Unit]
Description=Elastic Fruit Runner
After=docker.service
Requires=docker.service

[Service]
Restart=always
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/docker rm -f elastic-fruit-runner
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker run --rm --name elastic-fruit-runner \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v /etc/elastic-fruit-runner/config.yaml:/etc/elastic-fruit-runner/config.yaml:ro \
  ghcr.io/boring-design/elastic-fruit-runner:latest
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker stop elastic-fruit-runner

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable --now elastic-fruit-runner
sudo journalctl -fu elastic-fruit-runner