This page will guide you through the process of using Gitea Actions.
**Table of Contents**
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## Set up Gitea
First of all, you need a Gitea instance.
You can follow the [documentation]({{ < relref "doc/installation/from-package.en-us.md" > }}) to set up a new instance or upgrade your existing one.
It doesn't matter how you install or run Gitea, as long as its version is 1.19.0 or higher.
Actions are disabled by default, so you need to add the following to the configuration file to enable it:
```ini
[actions]
ENABLED=true
```
If you want to learn more or encounter any problems while configuring it, please refer to the [Configuration Cheat Sheet]({{ < relref "doc/administration/config-cheat-sheet.en-us.md#actions-actions" > }}).
### Set up runner
Gitea Actions requires [act runner](https://gitea.com/gitea/act_runner) to run the jobs.
In order to avoid consuming too many resources and affecting the Gitea instance, it is recommended to start runners on separate machines from the Gitea instance.
You can use the [pre-built binaries](http://dl.gitea.com/act_runner) or the [docker images](https://hub.docker.com/r/gitea/act_runner/tags) to set up the runner.
Before proceeding any further, we suggest running it as a command line with pre-built binaries to ensure that it works with your environment, especially if you are running a runner on your local host.
And it could be easier to debug if something goes wrong.
The runner can run the jobs in isolated Docker containers, so you need to make sure that the Docker has been installed and Docker daemon is running.
While it is not strictly necessary, because the runner can also run the jobs directly on the host, it depends on how you configure it.
However, it is recommended to use Docker to run the jobs, because it is more secure and easier to manage.
Before running a runner, you should first register it to your Gitea instance using the following command:
You will need to study [the workflow syntax](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions) for Actions and write the workflow files you want.
However, we can just start from a simple demo:
```yaml
name: Gitea Actions Demo
run-name: ${{ gitea.actor }} is testing out Gitea Actions 🚀
on: [push]
jobs:
Explore-Gitea-Actions:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- run: echo "🎉 The job was automatically triggered by a ${{ gitea.event_name }} event."
- run: echo "🐧 This job is now running on a ${{ runner.os }} server hosted by Gitea!"
- run: echo "🔎 The name of your branch is ${{ gitea.ref }} and your repository is ${{ gitea.repository }}."
- name: Check out repository code
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- run: echo "💡 The ${{ gitea.repository }} repository has been cloned to the runner."
- run: echo "🖥️ The workflow is now ready to test your code on the runner."
You can upload it as a file with the extension `.yaml` in the directory `.gitea/workflows/` of the repository, for example `.gitea/workflows/demo.yaml`.
You might notice that this is fairly similar from the [Quickstart for GitHub Actions](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/quickstart).
That is because Gitea Actions is designed to be compatible with GitHub Actions wherever possible.
Be careful, the demo file contains some emojis.
Please make sure your database supports them, especially when using MySQL.
If the charset is not `utf8mb4`, errors will occur, such as `Error 1366 (HY000): Incorrect string value: '\\xF0\\x9F\\x8E\\x89 T...' for column 'name' at row 1`.
See [Database Preparation]( {{ < relref "doc/installation/database-preparation.en-us.md#mysql" > }}) for more information.
Alternatively, you can remove all emojis from the demo file and try again.
The line `on: [push]` indicates that the workflow will be triggered when you push commits to this repository.
However, when you upload the YAML file, it also pushes a commit, so you should see a new task in the Actions tab.
Great job! You have successfully started working with Actions.
