Configuring Dependabot on self-hosted runners

You can configure self-hosted runners that Dependabot uses to access your private registries and internal network resources.

Who can use this feature?

Organization owners and repository administrators

In this article

Prerequisites

  • Dependabot is installed and enabled.
  • GitHub Actions is enabled and in use.

Adding self-hosted runners for Dependabot updates

  1. Provision self-hosted runners, at the repository or organization level. For more information, see Self-hosted runners and Adding self-hosted runners.
  2. Configure your environment and runners to meet the requirements for Dependabot. See Requirements for using Dependabot with self-hosted runners.
  3. If you are configuring self-hosted runners for your organization, you can create and assign a custom label for your runners. Otherwise, if you are configuring self-hosted runners for a standalone repository, you need to apply the dependabot label. See Using labels with self-hosted runners.
  4. Optionally, enable workflows triggered by Dependabot to use more than read-only permissions and to have access to any secrets that are normally available. For more information, see Troubleshooting Dependabot on GitHub Actions.

Enabling self-hosted runners for Dependabot updates

Once you have configured self-hosted runners for Dependabot updates, you can enable or disable Dependabot updates on self-hosted runners at the organization or repository level.

Note

Disabling and re-enabling the "Dependabot on self-hosted runners" setting does not trigger a new Dependabot run.

For your private repository

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

    Screenshot of a repository header showing the tabs. The "Settings" tab is highlighted by a dark orange outline.

  3. In the "Security" section of the sidebar, click Advanced Security.

  4. Under "Dependabot", to the right of "Dependabot on self-hosted runners", click Enable to enable the feature or Disable to disable it.

    Note

    If you do not see the option to enable Dependabot on self-hosted runners, your organization may have configured a policy to restrict actions and self-hosted runners from running in specific repositories. Contact your organization owner for more information.

For your organization

You can enable Dependabot on self-hosted runners for all existing private repositories in an organization. Only repositories already configured to run Dependabot on GitHub Actions will be updated to run Dependabot on self-hosted runners the next time a Dependabot job is triggered.

  1. In the upper-right corner of GitHub, click your profile picture, then click Organizations.
  2. Next to the organization, click Settings.
  3. In the "Security" section of the sidebar, click Advanced Security then Global settings.
  4. In the "Dependabot" section, next to "Runner type", click .
  5. Select the "Runner type" dropdown menu, then click Labeled runner and provide any additional information. If you applied a custom label to your self-hosted runners, type that label in the "Runner label" text box.
  6. To enable the feature for all new repositories in the organization, click Save runner selection.