# Part 7: Using remote runners Earthly has the ability to run builds both locally and remotely. In this section, we will explore how to use remote runners to perform builds on remote machines. ### Remote Runners Earthly is able to use remote runners for performing builds on remote machines. When Earthly uses a remote runner, the inputs of the build are picked up from the local environment, then the execution takes place remotely, including any pushes (`RUN --push` commands, and `SAVE IMAGE --push` commands), but any local outputs are sent back to the local environment. All this takes place while your local Earthly process still provides the logs of the build in real time locally. Remote runners are especially useful in a few specific circumstances: * You want to **reuse cache between CI runs** to dramatically speed up builds (more on this in part 8). * You want to **share compute and cache with coworkers** and/or with the CI. * You have **a build that requires a lot of resources**, and you want to run it on a machine with more resources than your local machine. * You have **a build that requires running on a specific CPU architecture** natively. * You have **a slow internet connection**. There are two types of remote runners: * Earthly Satellites (managed by Earthly; free up to 6,000 minutes/month; get started now by visiting the [sign up](https://cloud.earthly.dev/login) page) * Remote BuildKit (free, self-hosted) #### Using Earthly Satellites Earthly Satellites are remote runners managed by the Earthly team. To get started, first you need to [sign up for Earthly Cloud](https://cloud.earthly.dev/login) for free. Then, you can select the org that you are part of, and create a satellite. ```bash earthly org select earthly sat launch my-satellite ``` Once a satellite has been launched it is automatically selected for use. If you ever need to switch the satellite yourself, you can use the command... ```bash earthly sat select my-satellite ``` Additionally, you can go back to performing local builds with the command... ```bash earthly sat unselect ``` And then run Earthly builds as usual. ```bash earthly +my-target ``` Or, you can use a satellite as part of the build without selecting first ```bash earthly --sat my-satellite +my-target ``` For more information, check out the [Earthly Satellites](/earthly-cloud/satellites.md) page. #### Using a Remote BuildKit To run your own remote BuildKit, you can follow the instructions on the [remote BuildKit page](/ci-integration/remote-buildkit.md). #### Secrets and remote builds When running remote builds, some operations might require access to secrets. For example, if you are pushing images to a private registry, or if you are logged in to DockerHub to prevent rate limiting. Earthly will automatically pass the credentials from your local machine to the remote runner. Any secret that is available locally, including Docker/Podman credentials, will be passed to the remote runner whenever needed by the build. For more information about secrets, see the [Secrets guide](/docs/guides/secrets.md) and the [authenticating Git and image registries page](/docs/guides/auth.md). --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.earthly.dev/basics/part-7-using-remote-runners.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.