Self-Host Gitea Actions: CI/CD | TinyPod

Gitea Actions provides GitHub Actions-compatible CI/CD on your own server. Same YAML workflows, no GitHub dependency.

What Are Gitea Actions?

Gitea Actions is a CI/CD system built into Gitea that's compatible with GitHub Actions workflow syntax. Your existing .github/workflows YAML files work with minimal changes.

Why Self-Host CI/CD?

GitHub Actions free tier: 2,000 minutes/month

GitHub Actions Team: $4/user/month + $0.008/minute overages

Self-hosted: Unlimited minutes, your hardware

Compatibility

Gitea Actions supports:

Workflow syntax (on, jobs, steps)

Most GitHub Actions (via act runner)

Container-based steps

Matrix builds

Artifacts

Caching

Secrets and variables

Setup

1. Enable Actions in Gitea settings

2. Register a runner (the machine that executes workflows)

3. Add workflow files to your repository

4. Push and watch it run

Example Workflow

.gitea/workflows/ci.yml:

name: CI

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:

test:

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

steps:

uses: actions/checkout@v4

uses: actions/setup-node@v4

with:

node-version: 20

run: npm ci

run: npm test

run: npm run build

Almost identical to a GitHub Actions workflow.

Self-Hosted Runners

Runners execute your workflows. Run them on:

The same server as Gitea (simple but shares resources)

A separate server (better isolation)

Multiple runners for parallel builds

Deployment

1. Gitea is already deployed on TinyPod

2. Enable Gitea Actions in settings

3. Register the act runner

4. Add workflow files to repos

5. CI/CD runs on every push

Resources: Runner needs 1-2 CPU, 2 GB RAM depending on build complexity.

Migration from GitHub Actions

1. Copy .github/workflows/ to .gitea/workflows/

2. Replace github.com-specific actions with compatible versions

3. Update any GitHub-specific environment variables

4. Most workflows work with zero changes

Self-Hosting Gitea Actions: CI/CD Without GitHub