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nektos/act

Run your GitHub Actions locally ๐Ÿš€

Go โ—‡ ci MIT
โ˜…72.1KSTARS
โ‘‚2KFORKS
!384ISSUES
๐Ÿ†#141GLOBAL RANK
๐Ÿ”ฅ7DAYS TRENDING
๐Ÿš€
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Star History

Continuous Observations
Interactive star growth chart for nektos/act
CSV

Momentum

+1.8K

STARS ยท LAST 30 DAYS

60

PER DAY

#16

MOST-STARRED Go

Window7 days30 days90 days
Stars gained+420+1.8K+5.4K
Per day606060
Forks gained+10+41+102

act gained 1.8K stars in the last 30 days, about 60 a day, and now has 72.1K. It is about 8 years old and has averaged roughly 9K stars a year. It ranks #16 among Go repositories and #141 across all languages on GitHubRepo.

Trending Record

act has maintained a continuous presence across global trending indexes, peaking at #131. Below is the 30-day activity profile:

๐Ÿ’ก Overview

act is an open-source project written in Go: Run your GitHub Actions locally ๐Ÿš€.

Engineered for speed, consistency, and developer ease, it solves common hurdles in ci, devops, github-actions. It provides clear interfaces, comprehensive configuration options, and seamless integration with existing tools across the modern development stack.

โšก Key Features

1

Optimized execution pipeline written in Go for predictable speed.

2

Zero-friction configuration with comprehensive sensible defaults out of the box.

3

Cross-platform runtime support across Linux, macOS, and Windows environments.

4

Strong typing and modular architecture designed for easy extension and maintainability.

5

Standardized CLI and API interfaces for smooth integration into CI/CD workflows.

6

Active community maintenance with regular dependency updates and security patches.

๐Ÿ“ฅ Installation

terminal
$ go install github.com/nektos/act@latest

โš™ System Requirements

Platforms

  • โ€ข macOS
  • โ€ข Linux
  • โ€ข Windows

Runtime & Dependencies

Go >= 1.21 runtime environment

Architecture

x86_64, ARM64 (Apple Silicon & Graviton)

๐Ÿง  How It Works

act coordinates its core functionality through a modular Go pipeline. It parses configuration parameters, validates inputs, and resolves dependencies asynchronously. By minimizing runtime overhead and keeping allocations localized, it delivers predictable performance in both local development environments and automated production workloads.

๐ŸŽฏ Production Use Cases

Production System Integration

Embed act into Go backend services to handle core application logic.

CI/CD Automated Pipelines

Run automated validation, builds, and integration suites during deployments.

Developer Tooling & Workflows

Accelerate developer onboarding with pre-configured project utilities.

Open Source Extension

Fork and customize internal modules under the repository's open MIT license.

๐Ÿš€ Getting Started

1

Install act using your package manager: `go install github.com/nektos/act@latest`

2

Initialize your project workspace or configuration file for act.

3

Import act into your codebase or invoke it directly from your terminal.

4

Execute your test suite or run `act --help` to verify successful setup.

๐Ÿ‘ Strengths

Active community backing with 72,098 GitHub stars and verified adoption.
Permissive open-source distribution under the MIT license.
Built in Go for high execution speed and developer familiarity.
Cross-platform compatibility across modern Linux, macOS, and Windows environments.
Clean modular design allowing flexible configuration and pipeline integration.

โš ๏ธ Considerations

Requires familiarity with Go and modern CLI workflows.
Ecosystem extensions may require manual configuration depending on environment constraints.
Active development roadmap means breaking API changes may occur across major versions.

โ‡„ Alternatives & Direct Competitors

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golang/go โ˜… 139.1K Go

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๐Ÿ‘ฅ Who Should Use This

Developers and engineering teams building with Go, seeking reliable, tested, and actively maintained tooling for production workloads.

๐Ÿ† Nearby in the Rankings

nektos/act is currently ranked #141 by stars across every repository tracked on GitHubRepo. These are adjacent projects:

RankRepositoryLanguageStarsAction
#136 headroomlabs-ai/headroom Python โ˜… 73.9K Compare โ†—
#137 unionlabs/union Rust โ˜… 73.8K Compare โ†—
#138 danielmiessler/SecLists PHP โ˜… 73.8K Compare โ†—
#139 ruvnet/ruflo TypeScript โ˜… 73.4K Compare โ†—
#140 moby/moby Go โ˜… 72.1K Compare โ†—
#141 nektos/act This Project Go โ˜… 72.1K
#142 pbakaus/impeccable JavaScript โ˜… 72.1K Compare โ†—
#143 FoundationAgents/MetaGPT Python โ˜… 70.7K Compare โ†—
#144 Fission-AI/OpenSpec TypeScript โ˜… 70.5K Compare โ†—
#145 swiftlang/swift Swift โ˜… 70.4K Compare โ†—
#146 cline/cline TypeScript โ˜… 69.5K Compare โ†—

Frequently Asked Questions

What does act do? +

Run your GitHub Actions locally ๐Ÿš€

What language is act written in? +

The primary language is Go. Topics include: ci, devops, github-actions, golang.

Is act actively maintained? +

Yes, the last recorded push was on Aug 9, 2026 with 384 open issues being tracked.

How many stars does act have? +

act has 72,124 stars and 2,045 forks on GitHub.

How does act rank among GitHub repositories? +

With 72,124 stars, nektos/act is ranked #141 globally across all repositories tracked on GitHubRepo and #16 among Go projects.

What license is act distributed under? +

The repository reports a MIT license. Always verify the repository LICENSE file for legal terms.

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