android-emulator-runner

Launch an Android Emulator in your GitHub Actions workflow

This GitHub Action launches a pre-existing Android Virtual Device (AVD) emulator in your workflow. It is useful for running instrumented tests or any workflow step that requires an Android emulator.

Note: This action assumes the AVD is already created and available on the runner.

Usage

Add a step to your workflow YAML to launch the emulator:

- name: Launch Android Emulator
  uses: ndtp/[email protected]
  with:
    avd-name: test
    emulator-port: 5554
    emulator-boot-timeout: 180
    emulator-options: -no-window -gpu swiftshader_indirect -no-snapshot -noaudio -no-boot-anim
    disable-animations: true
    disable-spellchecker: false
    enable-hw-keyboard: false
    verbose: false

Inputs

Name	Description	Default
avd-name	Custom AVD name used for launching the Android Virtual Device	test
emulator-port	Port to run emulator on, allows running multiple emulators on the same machine	5554
emulator-boot-timeout	Emulator boot timeout in seconds. If it takes longer, the action fails	180
emulator-options	Command-line options used when launching the emulator	-no-window -gpu swiftshader_indirect -no-snapshot -noaudio -no-boot-anim
disable-animations	Whether to disable animations (true or false)	true
disable-spellchecker	Whether to disable the Android spell checker framework (true or false)	false
enable-hw-keyboard	Whether to enable hardware keyboard (true or false)	false
verbose	Enable verbose log output (true or false)	false

Outputs

Name	Description
emulator-port	The port the emulator is running on

Example Workflow

name: Android Instrumented Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Create AVD
        id: create
        uses: ndtp/android-avd-manager-action@main
        with:
          api-level: 29
          target: google_apis
          arch: x86_64
          profile: pixel_3a

      - name: Enable kernel-based virtual machine (KVM)
        uses: ndtp/enable-kvm-action@v1

      # Set up Java and Android SDK as needed here

      - name: Launch Android Emulator
        uses: ndtp/[email protected]
        with:
          emulator-boot-timeout: 300
          verbose: true

      - name: Run Instrumented Tests
        run: ./gradlew connectedAndroidTest

Implementation

• action.yml: Action definition and input/output specification.
• action.sh: Bash script that launches and configures the emulator.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 ndtp

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Citations

Portions of this are copyright of the original authors of ReactiveCircus/android-emulator-runner, licensed under Apache 2.0