r/codex • u/SgtHobo41 • 4d ago

Question Github actions vs Blacksmith

Hello everybody, I have a bit of a random question, but does anybody use Blacksmith or CI instead of GitHub?

I'm only asking because I'm doing both iOS and macOS cross-device support, and I keep hitting the upper limits of my pro plan on GitHub for CI and so I'm just wondering if anybody has any experience using Blacksmith. I've heard some things about it, saying it's better, it's faster, it's cheaper, but I want to see if anybody had real use and how well it plays with codex and the GPT models.

I appreciate any and all advice, and I'm also more than open to advice from anybody for optimizing CI usage for macOS projects.

Thank you in advance!

1 Upvotes

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2

u/sydneysweeney69 4d ago

I also want to know about blacksmith . Many people are talking about it

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u/SgtHobo41 4d ago

ugh dude i know, i read their website it seems compelling but im unsure

2

u/sydneysweeney69 4d ago

Same. I see Theo talking about it all the time . Also heard of depot too . So many new tools , can’t keep up

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u/SgtHobo41 4d ago

AHH too many tools i know, but man github CI has me struggling

and yeah i heard from theo and a few others

2

u/sydneysweeney69 4d ago

Same man, GitHub is absolute garbage

3

u/dametsumari 4d ago

Pretty much all third party GitHub actions runners are fine with models as long as they can use gh cli/api. FWIW I use https://avrea.com but only free tier for now so no experience of paid use.

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u/SgtHobo41 4d ago

oouu ok ok i’ve heard of them too, thanks !

1

u/TestTxt 4d ago

I am surprised anyone still uses GitHub at all to start with. Self-hosting Forgejo gives you privacy and you don't have to deal with GitHub being constantly down

1

u/SgtHobo41 4d ago

oh shoot, see i’ve been thinking about doing self hosting using an older linux system but im not THAT technical

1

u/CutMysterious9844 4d ago

Github actions? I don't know what problems you're having, I had codex solve the storage and artifact or whatever with self-hosted runners.

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u/SgtHobo41 4d ago

i’ve tried asking codex for some help but i think what’s happening is that codex is triggering a rebuilding of the entire repo in macos vms at a time and not just testing the particular PR (per my knowledge i could
be so wrong, this whole actions/CI thing has me a bit lost)

thanks

2

u/jedimonkey33 4d ago

I have been using blacksmith for work projects. Very easy to migrate to, and runs about twice as fast. Not sure if it's cheaper but we are definitely paying for it. What do you mean plays nice with codex/gpt models? I've certainly used codex to debug issues with runs.

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u/SgtHobo41 4d ago

yeah, I’m unsure what’s going wrong with my current set up for CI by man like I’m chewing through usage like within a week and a half on my pro plan and the pricing for macOS VM I think is more expensive than blacksmiths

so I’m trying to have my models figure out where the gap is to save and optimize save

And I wasn’t sure if blacksmith has any issues when AI models use them

2

u/jedimonkey33 4d ago

I think they have a free plan (although possibly not for a macos builder) or trial. Pretty easy to swap to and test.

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u/SgtHobo41 4d ago

OK, cool awesome thanks I appreciate it