Self hosted Runner with act

[Lekanlekzy]

Hi everyone, I am using act to run action locally but my issue is that due to the fact that my workflow needs self-hosted runner to run parameters like zowe which works fine on the actual github action but whenever I run it through act would fail with zowe: command not found as error.

How can I resolve this

[wellkilo]

self-hosted in runs-on is a GitHub label, not an instruction for act to reuse the software installed on your GitHub runner host. act maps labels to container images and runs the job inside that container, so zowe must exist in the selected image or be installed by the workflow.

Use one of these approaches:

1. Build an act runner image containing zowe and map the label:

   docker build -t local/act-zowe:latest - <<'EOF'
   FROM catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest
   # install Node and Zowe CLI here
   RUN npm install -g @zowe/cli
   EOF
   
   act -P self-hosted=local/act-zowe:latest
   

2. Add an explicit install/setup step to the workflow and cache dependencies. This is more reproducible on both GitHub and act.

3. If you truly need the host environment, run the relevant command outside act or use a workflow path designed for a container with the required host mounts. act is not a registered self-hosted runner and does not automatically inherit host executables/PATH.

Also check the exact runs-on expression. If it is an array such as [self-hosted, linux, x64], map the label act selects or pass the corresponding -P entries. Running act -v will show the selected platform image.

The project README describes act's model: it maps the workflow to Docker images and runs actions inside containers: How Does It Work?.

[Icaro0310]

act runs your job inside a Docker container, so it doesn't see tools installed on your host — that's why zowe works on your real self-hosted runner but not under act.

Two ways to fix it:

1. Run on the host directly (no container):

act -P self-hosted=-self-hosted

That maps the self-hosted label to run the job directly on your machine, so it picks up your local zowe install.

2. Keep Docker, but use an image that has Zowe CLI — either add a setup step to your workflow:

- run: npm install -g @zowe/cli

or build a small custom image with Zowe preinstalled and pass it in:

act -P self-hosted=my-registry/act-with-zowe:latest

Option 1 is fastest if your host is already configured; option 2 keeps the test hermetic.

—
Related work of mine: github.com/Icaro0310 · Website: icaro0310.github.io