> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://athanor.alexisbouchez.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Athanor

> Self-hosted GitHub Actions with CloudHypervisor microVMs

# Athanor

Athanor is a self-hosted CI engine that runs your GitHub Actions workflows inside ephemeral CloudHypervisor microVMs. Push to GitHub, and Athanor receives the webhook, spins up an isolated VM, runs your workflow, and reports the results back with full logs.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Installation" icon="download" href="/getting-started/installation">
    Build from source and deploy to a server.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Quick Start" icon="rocket" href="/getting-started/quickstart">
    Get a CI server running in minutes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="GitHub App Setup" icon="key" href="/guides/github-app">
    Enable the Checks API for full log output on GitHub.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Architecture" icon="sitemap" href="/reference/architecture">
    How webhooks, VMs, and the runner fit together.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## How It Works

1. You push code to GitHub
2. GitHub sends a webhook to your Athanor server
3. Athanor clones the repo and discovers matching workflows
4. For each job, a CloudHypervisor microVM boots (\~4 seconds to SSH)
5. Steps execute inside the VM via SSH, with the workspace shared via virtiofs
6. Logs are collected per-step and streamed to the web dashboard in real time
7. Results are reported back to GitHub via the Checks API (with full logs) and commit statuses
8. The VM is destroyed

## Two Modes

**Server mode** receives GitHub webhooks, runs workflows in microVMs, and reports results. This is how you self-host CI.

```bash theme={null}
athanor serve
```

**Local mode** runs workflows on your machine with a terminal UI. Useful for testing workflows before pushing.

```bash theme={null}
athanor --workflow .github/workflows/ci.yml
```