executors

job-defaults applies one set of defaults to every job. executors is the opt-in companion: named presets that a job pulls in by name with executor:. Use it when some jobs need a hardened runner, a container, or a service block and others don't — define the preset once, reference it where it applies. Both executors and the executor: key are stripped from the output.

name: CI
on: [push]
executors:
  hardened:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 20
    permissions:
      contents: read
jobs:
  test:
    executor: hardened
    steps:
      - run: npm test

name: CI
on:
  - push
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 20
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - run: npm test

name: CI
on: [push]
executors:
  hardened:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 20
    permissions:
      contents: read
jobs:
  test:
    executor: hardened
    steps:
      - run: npm test

name: CI
on:
  - push
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 20
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - run: npm test

Composing executors

executor: accepts an ordered list of names. Presets are merged left-to-right, so later entries win for scalar keys and env-style maps are deep-merged:

jobs:
  build:
    executor: [base, gpu]
    steps:
      - run: ./build.sh

An inline runner key on the job always wins over what the executor provides, so a job can adopt a preset and still override one field locally.

Gotchas

See the executors and executor entries in the syntax reference for the full preset and composition rules.