Necessary prerequisites for running act
act depends on docker to run workflows.
If you are using macOS, please be sure to follow the steps outlined in Docker Docs for how to install Docker Desktop for Mac.
If you are using Windows, please follow steps for installing Docker Desktop on Windows.
If you are using Linux, you will need to install Docker Engine.
act is currently not supported with podman or other container backends (it might work, but it's not guaranteed). Please see #303 for updates.
Installation through package managers
Packaging status
Homebrew (Linux/macOS)
brew install act
or if you want to install version based on latest commit, you can run below (it requires compiler to be installed but Homebrew will suggest you how to install it, if you don't have it):
brew install act --HEAD
MacPorts (macOS)
sudo port install act
Chocolatey (Windows)
choco install act-cli
Scoop (Windows)
scoop install act
AUR (Linux)
yay -S act
COPR (Linux)
dnf copr enable rubemlrm/act-cli
dnf install act-cli
Nix (Linux/macOS)
Global install:
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.act
or through nix-shell:
nix-shell -p act
Other install options
Bash script (Linux/macOS)
Run this command in your terminal to install latest released version:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nektos/act/master/install.sh | sudo bash
⚠ Script can't install non-released versions ⚠
Manual download of prebuilt executable (multiple platforms)
Prebuilt executables for multiple platforms are available via latest release page.
You can unpack and run them in terminal specifying full path or add them to one of the paths included in PATH environment variable.
Build from source (All platforms)
Requires Go toolchain 1.16+
git clone https://github.com/nektos/act.git
cd act/
make build
# OR
go build -ldflags "-X main.version=$(git describe --tags --dirty --always | sed -e 's/^v//')" -o dist/local/act main.go