Build Agent - CI/CD Glossary Definition
A build agent is the software service on a runner that connects to the CI server, claims queued jobs, and executes them.
A build agent is the process running on a CI machine that registers with the orchestrator, picks up queued jobs, and runs their build and test steps. In GitHub Actions the agent is the runner application (run.sh / Runner.Listener).
Agent vs runner
The terms overlap: the physical or virtual machine is the runner, while the agent is the listener process on it that polls for work. One machine can host multiple agents to run jobs in parallel.
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