Compute Specifications

StarSling offers three runner families:

• CPU runners on 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors, for CI workloads that need maximum performance.
• GPU runners backed by NVIDIA cards.
• Review Runners, optimized for code review workloads at a lower cost.

Choose a runner based on the compute resources your job requires.

CPU Specifications

The numeric suffix on each label indicates the vCPU count (e.g. -8 = 8 vCPU). The label without a suffix is the 4 vCPU default and is recommended for ubuntu-latest and ubuntu-26.04.

All CPU sizes run Ubuntu 26.04 or Ubuntu 24.04 on 5th Gen AMD EPYC. Ubuntu 26.04 is the default shown here.

GPU Specifications

All cards are NVIDIA. Prices are all-in: each rate covers the GPU and the host it runs on, billed per minute like any other runner.

Selecting a card

The gpus= selector takes a card SKU and a card count, gpus=<sku>:<count>. While GPU runners are in beta they are single-card, so the count is always 1.

starsling-ubuntu-26.04-gpu is shorthand for the default card — it is equivalent to starsling-ubuntu-26.04-gpu/gpus=rtx-pro-6000:1. See the Label Reference for the full label grammar and the list of card SKUs.

Review Specifications

Review Runners are optimized for code review jobs. Rather than a single processor generation, they run on a blend of CPUs selected for cost, which makes them half the price of the equivalent 4 vCPU CPU runner.

Use starsling-review for code review workloads. For builds, tests, and other CI jobs where speed matters, use the CPU runners, which are sized for maximum performance.

Performance Characteristics

StarSling CPU runners deliver excellent performance for most CI workloads:

• Web Applications (React, Next.js, Vue): Fast installs and builds
• Backend Services (Go, Rust, Java): Efficient parallel compilation
• Test Suites: Parallel test execution

Larger sizes (8 vCPU and above) are well-suited for monorepo builds, large test matrices, and compilation-heavy workloads.

Example Usage

runs-on: starsling-ubuntu-26.04

For a larger size:

runs-on: starsling-ubuntu-26.04-8

On a GPU runner:

runs-on: starsling-ubuntu-26.04-gpu

To pick a specific card:

runs-on: starsling-ubuntu-26.04-gpu/gpus=rtx-5090:1

For a code review job:

runs-on: starsling-review

Optimization Tips

1. Cache dependencies: Use actions/cache to avoid repeated downloads
2. Use matrix builds: Split tests across multiple runners for parallelism
3. Right-size your runner: Larger isn't always better — measure before scaling up