Gitea Runner Deployment for WordPress Auto Deployment

In our previous blogs, we explored Installing Gitea and Pushing a Fresh Git Repository to the Gitea Server.

Now that we have a working Gitea setup and know how to manage our repositories, it’s time to take the next step — automating deployments.

Manually updating your WordPress site every time you push code can be tedious, time-consuming job

With Gitea Actions Runner (act_runner), we can automate this process so that every push to the repository automatically deploys the changes to your live server.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through setting up a Gitea Runner for Auto Deployment — from installation and configuration to writing the workflow that syncs files directly to your WordPress directory.

Prerequisites

• A working WordPress website hosted on any Linux server.
• Git installed (required for pulling/pushing code)
• Access to the server as root or sudo user
• A non-root user for WordPress file ownership
• Node.js and npm installed (required by act_runner) which can be installed using:

 apt install nodejs npm

Step 1: Download and Install Gitea Runner

Gitea provides a self-hosted runner called act_runner (go to https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/ for download). To install it:

#wget -O act_runner.tar.gz https://dl.gitea.com/act_runner/0.2.12/act_runner-0.2.12-linux-amd64

#tar -xvf act_runner.tar.gz
#mv act_runner /usr/local/bin/

Make sure the binary is executable:

#chmod +x /usr/local/bin/act_runner

Step 2: Generate Registration Token

Log in to your Gitea web interface.

Navigate to your repository → Settings → Actions → Runners.

Click “Generate Registration Token” and  it.

Step 3: Create the Configuration File

Create a directory for your runner config:

#mkdir -p /etc/act_runner
#cd /etc/act_runner
#vim /etc/act_runner/config.yaml

Here’s an example configuration:

log:
  level: info

runner:
  file: .runner
  capacity: 1
  timeout: 3h
  shutdown_timeout: 0s
  insecure: false
  fetch_timeout: 5s
  fetch_interval: 2s
  executor: host
  labels:
    - "host"

host:
  workdir_parent: /home/act_runner/work

Ensure labels is set as “host”.

Step 4: Register the Runner

Run the following command to register the runner with Gitea:

/usr/local/bin/act_runner --config /etc/act_runner/config.yaml register

You’ll be prompted to enter:

• Gitea instance URL
• Token
• Runner name (optional)
• Labels (use host)

After registration, a file named .runner will be created in the current directory (/etc/act_runner).

Step 5: Create a System User for the Runner

For better security and separation of privileges, create a dedicated system user:

#useradd --system --shell /usr/sbin/nologin --create-home act_runner

Give the user sudo privileges (needed for rsync and chown):

#visudo

Add the line:

act_runner ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

Also, create the required work directory:

#mkdir -p /home/act_runner/work
#chown -R act_runner:act_runner /home/act_runner

Step 6: Create Workflow File for Auto Deployment

Inside your Gitea repository, create the following directory structure: 

#mkdir -p .gitea/workflows
#vim .gitea/workflows/deploy.yml

Paste this content:

name: Auto Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: host
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Rsync to Production
        run: |
          sudo rsync -av --delete ./ /home/giteatest2/public_html/
          sudo chown -R giteatest2:giteatest2 /home/giteatest2/public_html/

Replace /home/giteatest2/public_html/ with your actual WordPress directory.

rsync: Syncs the codebase.

chown: Resets file ownership post-deployment.

Step 7: Reload and Restart the Act Runner Service:

#systemctl daemon-reexec
#systemctl daemon-reload
#systemctl restart act_runner

Step 8: Commit and Push Code

Push your website files from the working directory:

#su act_runner -
#cd /home/testdev/public_html/
#git init
#git remote add origin http://your-gitea-server/gituser/repo.git
#git add .
#git commit -m "Initial commit of WordPress site"
#git push -u origin main

To commit only the workflow file:

#git add .gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
#git commit -m "Add deployment workflow"
#git push

Once pushed, the act_runner will detect the change and deploy automatically!

Conclusion

With Gitea Runner configured, you now have a fully automated deployment pipeline for your WordPress site.

Every time you push changes to your repository, your server will pull the latest code, sync it to the production directory, and update file permissions — all without manual intervention.

Need expert help with Gitea Runner Deployment for WordPress? Our DevOps support services ensure seamless automation, fast deployment, and reliable performance. Contact us today to get started!