Tools Practical By Samson Tanimawo, PhD Published Jan 9, 2026 4 min read

act for Local GitHub Actions

act runs GitHub Actions locally.

Usage

act runs the workflow that would run on push.

Useful for testing changes without git push.

Limits

Some Actions don't run perfectly locally.

Final test still on GitHub-hosted runners.

Speed

Faster iteration than git push, see fail, fix, push.

Saves minutes per iteration.