> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.blacksmith.sh/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Welcome

> The fastest way to run your GitHub Actions

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/blacksmith/RMBIa5U5GnHQ2Ykn/logo/blacksmith_horizontal_logo_with_background.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=RMBIa5U5GnHQ2Ykn&q=85&s=3c42847fda4006d0a680d737b7c50209" alt="Blacksmith 2.0" width="1200" height="376" data-path="logo/blacksmith_horizontal_logo_with_background.png" />

## Features

Blacksmith is a dead-simple, drop-in replacement for GitHub runners across Linux, Windows, and macOS that helps you run GitHub Actions faster, make everything (actually) observable, and reduce CI cost.

### Performance

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="2x faster runners" icon="gauge-max" href="/blacksmith-runners/overview">
    Run on bare metal gaming CPUs with the highest single-core performance
  </Card>

  <Card title="4x faster cache downloads" icon="download" href="/blacksmith-caching/dependencies-actions">
    Cache artifacts in the same data center where your jobs are running
  </Card>

  <Card title="40x faster Docker builds" icon="layer-group" href="/blacksmith-caching/docker-builds">
    Persist Docker layers across CI runs on our blazing-fast NVMe drives
  </Card>

  <Card title="Container caching" icon="box" href="/blacksmith-caching/docker-container-caching">
    Pre-hydrate service containers to eliminate pull and extraction overhead
  </Card>
</Columns>

### Observability

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Run History" icon="rectangle-history" href="/blacksmith-observability/history">
    Search, filter, and debug past CI runs
  </Card>

  <Card title="Logs" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/blacksmith-observability/logs">
    Search and filter logs across your entire CI pipeline
  </Card>

  <Card title="SSH Access" icon="terminal" href="/blacksmith-observability/ssh-access">
    Debug running jobs and inspect VM state
  </Card>

  <Card title="Test Analytics" icon="vial" href="/blacksmith-observability/test-analytics">
    Quickly identify test failures and fix them
  </Card>

  <Card title="CI Analytics" icon="chart-line-up" href="/blacksmith-observability/dashboard">
    Monitor your GitHub Actions performance and costs across your team
  </Card>
</Columns>

## Too good to be true?

Don't just believe us, try it out in under 5 minutes. Go now!

<Card title="Quickstart" icon="forward-fast" href="/introduction/quickstart">
  \< 5 minutes
</Card>

## LLMs

We support both `llms.txt` and `llms-full.txt` to help LLMs read and index our docs more efficiently.

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="llms.txt" icon="microchip-ai" href="https://docs.blacksmith.sh/llms.txt">
    Open the llms.txt for this site
  </Card>

  <Card title="llms-full.txt" icon="microchip-ai" href="https://docs.blacksmith.sh/llms-full.txt">
    Open the llms-full.txt for this site
  </Card>
</Columns>