Accelerate your GitHub Actions with Namespace

Transform your CI/CD pipeline with high-performance runners. Namespace offers unique capabilities for Linux, Windows and macOS to speed up your GitHub workflows.

Getting started

To run your workflows on Namespace, you need to connect Namespace with your GitHub organization. Namespace runners offer a high degree of customization and unique capabilities. You can configure and adjust settings in the Namespace UI through a profile. Start off by selecting your target OS / architecture and picking an optimal shape. Then, all you need to do is a one-line change to your workflow definition.

Connect your GitHub organization to Namespace

Open the Dashboard to connect your GitHub organization.

Create a profile

Open the Dashboard and click “New Profile”.
Specify a name. The name will be part of the runs-on label in your workflow file.
Select if you want to run on Linux AMD64, Linux ARM64, Windows or macOS.
Pick a resource shape. You can change the shape later to find the best fit.
Confirm by pressing “Create Profile”.

Update your workflow

Update the runs-on label in your workflow file to select the runner profile:

jobs:
  myjob:
    runs-on: macos-latest-xlarge
    runs-on: namespace-profile-big-apple

Done!

Your GitHub workflow will now run on Namespace!

You can apply finer runner controls, such as job ordering, privileged workflows, swap space, Tailscale, and access levels, by appending settings to your profile name. See Runner Controls for how to pass them.

Choose a resource shape

Namespace Runners are powered by Namespace Compute which uses best-in-class hardware for every platform:

Linux AMD64 runs on high-performance AMD EPYC CPUs.
Linux ARM64 supported by AmpereOne (high memory configurations), and Apple M4 Pro and M5 Max.
Windows AMD64 runs on high-performance AMD EPYC CPUs.
macOS ARM64 Apple M5 Max (or M4 Pro on some configurations).

Selecting an optimal resource shape can optimize your performance and cost. Larger shapes may be faster if your workflows can make use of the additional resources. Smaller shapes may be cheaper if your runner is oversized. We recommend observing a few runs first before adjusting the resource shape.

Migrating your existing setup

When moving your workflow to Namespace, you should see immediate performance benefits. You can speed up your workflows further by switching to more Namespace features.

Faster Docker builds

No configuration changes required. The fastest way to speed up your Docker builds is to simply switch to Namespace runners. Remote Builders are enabled by default and will immediately accelerate your builds. If your workflow includes docker/setup-buildx-action, remove it to prevent overriding Namespace’s configuration:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    runs-on: namespace-profile-large-builder
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v3
      - uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
      - uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: my-registry/my-app:latest

That’s it! Your builds are now running on high-performance Remote Builders with advanced caching. To learn how Namespace speeds up your Docker builds, benefit from the Namespace container registry, or gain build performance insights, see the Docker build guide.

Adopt Cache Volumes

Cache Volumes are Namespace’s high-performance caching solution that persists data across GitHub Actions runs. For a deep dive, see the caching guide.

Enable caching

Go to the desired Runner Profile and enable caching. For most workflows, enabling all caching options leads to the best performance.

Container images, Toolchain downloads, and Action downloads are fully transparent: after enabling these options, no additional steps are required.

Faster git checkouts

After enabling Git repository checkouts, replace mentions of actions/checkout with nscloud-checkout-action:

jobs:
  tests:
    runs-on: namespace-profile-integration-tests
    steps:
      - name: Check out my repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        uses: namespacelabs/nscloud-checkout-action@v8
        with:
          path: my-repo
      - run: |
          cd my-repo && git status

The main difference over actions/checkout is built-in git mirror support, which enables automatic caching. See the action reference for all options.

Adopt framework caching

nscloud-cache-action supports many popular frameworks natively. Add it to your workflow and select the frameworks you use:

- name: Configure Go, NPM, and Rust cache
  uses: namespacelabs/nscloud-cache-action@v1
  with:
    cache: |
      go
      npm
      rust

For the full list of supported frameworks, see the action reference.

Migrating from actions/cache

The action nscloud-cache-action can also be used to cache arbitrary files or directories. If you are using actions/cache today, typically replacing it with nscloud-cache-action provides strictly better performance by skipping remote file transfers.

- name: Cache node modules
  uses: actions/cache@v4
  uses: namespacelabs/nscloud-cache-action@v1
  with:
    path: .next/cache

Cache Volumes perform well when used frequently. While onboarding to cache volumes, you may see a higher than usual amount of cache misses before merging your change to main.Note: nscloud-cache-action does not support manual partitioning (e.g. via cache keys); cache uses are shared across all users of a particular profile, including main and branch runs. However, you can protect caches to only be writable by certain branches (e.g. by the main branch).

Enable Build System integrations

Namespace runners accelerate your Docker builds out of the box. If you use Bazel, Turborepo, Pants, or Moonrepo, you can enable native caching integrations for your build system. See Build System Integrations for the full list. Don’t see your build system? Reach out to our integrations team to learn about upcoming releases and join the early access.

Next steps: optimize your workflows

Enhance your CI/CD pipeline with more Namespace tools. Custom Base Images → Speed up workflows by pre-installing your dependencies and tools in custom runner images. Debugging → Interactive access, remote display, observability, and queue-time analysis for troubleshooting workflows. Runner Controls → Job ordering, privileged workflows, swap space, Tailscale, access levels, and containerized job access.

Guides

Optimizing Usage → Use the insights dashboard to monitor workflow performance, track resource usage, and identify opportunities to reduce costs and improve performance. Looking for the runner label grammar or override syntax? See Runner Labels.

App Permissions

You can install the app on either a personal account or an organization. See GitHub’s docs on app permissions and installing an app. When you connect the Namespace Runners app, it requests the following permissions:

Actions: Read and write
Administration: Read and write
Organization self-hosted runners: Read and write
Metadata: Read (granted automatically by GitHub)

By default, Namespace uses repository-level runners for the broadest compatibility, which require the Administration permission. We also support using organization-level runners, which require fewer permissions. Reach out to support@namespace.so to switch to the alternative model.

Enterprise support

Need custom machine shapes, dedicated capacity, or specialized support? Our support team can unlock runners with up to 512GB RAM and provide dedicated consultation for complex CI/CD requirements.

Products

Platform

Administration

Accelerate your GitHub Actions with Namespace

Getting started

Connect your GitHub organization to Namespace

Create a profile

Update your workflow

Done!

Choose a resource shape

Migrating your existing setup

Faster Docker builds

Adopt Cache Volumes

Enable caching

Faster git checkouts

Adopt framework caching

Migrating from actions/cache

Enable Build System integrations

Next steps: optimize your workflows

Guides

App Permissions

Enterprise support

​Getting started

Connect your GitHub organization to Namespace

Create a profile

Update your workflow

Done!

​Choose a resource shape

​Migrating your existing setup

​Faster Docker builds

​Adopt Cache Volumes

Enable caching

Faster git checkouts

Adopt framework caching

Migrating from actions/cache

​Enable Build System integrations

​Next steps: optimize your workflows

​Guides

​App Permissions

​Enterprise support

Getting started

Choose a resource shape

Migrating your existing setup

Faster Docker builds

Adopt Cache Volumes

Enable Build System integrations

Next steps: optimize your workflows

Guides

App Permissions

Enterprise support