How do I add labels to GitHub runners?

Question

I have defined a new github runner. It has a name, and the name automatically becomes a label. I'd like to add another label to this runner, to use when matching a workflow to a runner.

"The internet" claims that I can "click the runner in the list, then click in the label area to add another label," but this doesn't appear to work. I can see the Labels section, I can see the one label bubble that copies the name, but there's nowhere I can click to add another label to this runner.

So, how does one add another label to a given github runner?

Here is what I see when attempting to edit a self-hosted runner:

Here is what I see when I edit a github-hosted runner:

Answer 1

From the runner itself, you are forced to do:

C:\actions-runner> .\config.cmd remove
# ^ it will ask for token! if you did not save it, you will have to remove from github UI
C:\actions-runner> .\config.cmd

From github runners web interface you can add labels for already configured runners:

• click on the runner name in the UI
• click on the cogwheel to edit labels, see below:

Answer 2

There is currently no way to add additional labels to a Github-hosted runner. GitHub has conveniently located this information not in the "manage larger runner" documentation where a normal person would expect it, but rather as a note in "Running jobs on larger runners".

Larger runners are automatically assigned a default label that corresponds to the runner name. You cannot add custom labels to larger runners, but you can use the default labels or the runner's group to send jobs to specific types of runners.

You can define custom labels only for self-hosted runners, as described in the label section of the docs for self-hosted runners. However, if you're using ARC to run those runners on k8s, this doesn't apply; you can only use one label set by the scaleset name (which makes it seem like a safe bet that GitHub is using ARC or a variation on ARC internally for hosted runners).