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
db_path: /var/lib/elastic-fruit-runner/jobs.db

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
      - ./data:/var/lib/elastic-fruit-runner
    ports:
      - 127.0.0.1:8080:8080

docker compose up -d

Open http://127.0.0.1:8080 and use the setup code from the container log. The config mount must be writable to use the editor. See Use the operations console.

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
db_path: /var/lib/elastic-fruit-runner/jobs.db

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
      - ./private-key.pem:/etc/efr/private-key.pem:ro
      - ./data:/var/lib/elastic-fruit-runner
    ports:
      - 127.0.0.1:8080:8080

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

Follow How to upgrade Elastic Fruit Runner to check running jobs, update the image, and verify the Console.

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