Blacksmith
A drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted runners that runs GitHub Actions on faster bare-mt
Blacksmith is a CI runner service that executes GitHub Actions jobs on its own bare-metal hardware, acting as a drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted runners. It addresses slow build times, slow cache downloads, and high per-minute costs by running jobs on high-performance CPUs and co-locating cache artifacts with the compute. Jobs execute in isolated Firecracker microVMs, and a console provides logs and observability for CI runs.
The service supports GitHub Actions workflows across Ubuntu x64, Ubuntu ARM, Windows x64, and macOS M4 runners, with vCPU options ranging from 2 to 32. Capabilities include co-located dependency caching, managed Docker pull caching, Docker layer caching, sticky disks, static IPs, and unlimited concurrency. The console offers global log search, inline failed-test logs posted as GitHub comments, and performance comparison reporting. Authentication uses GitHub SSO, and jobs run in ephemeral Firecracker microVMs on bare-metal machines behind a private Tailscale VPN, with cache artifacts stored on MinIO and Ceph clusters.
Blacksmith is packaged as pay-as-you-go with a free monthly allowance of 3,000 minutes, plus optional add-ons for Docker layer caching, sticky disks, and static IPs. An Enterprise edition adds a 99.9% SLA, 24/7 priority support, a dedicated Slack channel, white-glove onboarding, and CI optimization support. The company states SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR compliance, with hardware in ISO 27001 data centers.
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