GitHub Action to setup apptainer

Install Apptainer in your GitHub Actions workflows on Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, or 26.04 (x64) using apptainers unprivileged install script. The action adds apptainer to PATH and caches the installation for faster subsequent runs.

Requires sudo, which is available on GitHub-hosted Ubuntu runners.

Inputs

apptainer-version

Apptainer version, such as 1.5.4, without a leading v. Defaults to latest, which selects the latest stable release on each run. Versions 1.1.4 and newer are supported when a release provides prebuilt x64 binaries.

cache

Cache the installation across workflow runs. Defaults to true; set to false to disable. No additional actions/cache step is needed.

github-token

Token used to look up releases. Defaults to ${{ github.token }}.

Outputs

apptainer-version

The installed Apptainer version.

cache-hit

true when an existing installation was reused; otherwise false.

Example usage

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v7
  - uses: eWaterCycle/setup-apptainer@v3
    with:
      apptainer-version: latest
  - name: Run an apptainer container
    run: apptainer run docker://alpine cat /etc/os-release

Contributing

See the contribution guidelines.