Summary
Investigate whether we should adopt wrkflw instead of act for running GitHub Actions workflows locally.
Pros
- Built-in validator (
wrkflw validate) can catch workflow schema issues before pushing.
- Offers both Docker/Podman execution and an emulation mode for environments where container runtime access is limited.
- Provides a TUI and CLI with job dependency visualization, parallel execution, and on-demand remote triggering.
- Native handling for composite, JavaScript, and local actions plus common actions like
actions/checkout.
Cons
- Young project (first release March 2025) with low adoption; stability and long-term maintenance are unproven.
- Several GitHub features remain unsupported or partial (e.g., caching, artifacts, advanced expressions, Windows/macOS runners).
- Requires Rust toolchain (cargo) for installation; no prebuilt binaries yet.
- Documentation notes performance limits for large matrix builds and potential gaps in GitHub-specific environment simulations.
Questions
- Do we rely on any features that wrkflw lacks (caching, artifacts, service containers, etc.)?
- Are there security or IT policies that would prefer Docker vs Podman vs emulation?
- Would wrkflw's TUI materially improve contributor experience over our current
act usage?
Next steps
- Pilot wrkflw on a subset of workflows and compare results/time against act.
- Document any blockers (missing features, bugs) and upstream them if we proceed.
- Decide whether to maintain both tools or fully replace
act after evaluation.
Summary
Investigate whether we should adopt wrkflw instead of
actfor running GitHub Actions workflows locally.Pros
wrkflw validate) can catch workflow schema issues before pushing.actions/checkout.Cons
Questions
actusage?Next steps
actafter evaluation.