Deploy the Agent Runner
Agenta agent workflows run through a separate runner service. The Services
API sends agent runs to this service through AGENTA_RUNNER_URL.
The runner owns the harness process lifecycle and runner-scoped sandbox provider settings. It should not inherit the full stack environment file.
Docker Compose
The bundled Compose files include runner by default. The Services API points to it
inside the Compose network:
AGENTA_RUNNER_URL=http://runner:8765
Use these variables when you need to override the image or default sandbox provider:
AGENTA_RUNNER_IMAGE_NAME=agenta-runner
AGENTA_RUNNER_IMAGE_TAG=latest
SANDBOX_AGENT_PROVIDER=local
Helm
The Helm chart enables the runner by default:
agentRunner:
enabled: true
port: 8765
provider: local
When agentRunner.enabled=true, the chart creates a runner Deployment and Service
and injects the in-cluster URL into the Services pod as AGENTA_RUNNER_URL.
To use an external runner instead:
agentRunner:
enabled: false
externalUrl: https://runner.example.com
Railway
The Railway scripts create a runner service and configure the Services API with the
runner's private Railway URL. For image-based deploys, provide the runner image with the
other Agenta images:
export AGENTA_RUNNER_IMAGE="ghcr.io/agenta-ai/agenta-runner:latest"