Creating Your First Instance

GetMac is built for CI/CD. Its job is to run your GitHub Actions, GitLab and Buildkite pipelines on macOS. Instances — virtual machines you create by hand and connect to over SSH or the remote display — exist only so you can debug something interactively: reproduce a failing build, inspect the environment a job sees, or check a fix before you push it. They are not meant to be remote Macs for day-to-day development or long-running work.

Instances are deleted after 60 minutes

Every instance you create yourself has a fixed maximum lifetime of 60 minutes, counted from the moment it is created. When the hour is up, the instance is deleted automatically — whether or not you are still using it. Open SSH and remote display sessions are closed, and everything on the instance's disk is lost.

  • The limit is the same on every plan and cannot be extended or turned off.
  • It does not depend on activity: an instance in active use is deleted at the 60-minute mark just like an idle one.
  • Nothing carries over to the next instance. Each one starts from a fresh macOS image.

To make the most of the hour:

  • Keep your work outside the instance. Push branches as you go, or copy results out with scp or rsync before the hour ends.
  • Script your setup — clone, install dependencies, build — so a new instance gets back to where you were in a few minutes.
  • Delete the instance when you are done. It is billed and holds one of your plan's concurrent instance slots for as long as it exists.

CI/CD jobs are different: runners are created automatically for each job and a job can run for up to 6 hours. If your work needs more than an hour, run it as a workflow — see GitHub Runners.

Note: If you are setting up CI/CD, you do not need to create an instance here. GetMac provisions a runner automatically for every workflow job and deletes it as soon as the job finishes, so you are billed only for the job itself — see GitHub Runners. An instance created on this page is billed while it exists and uses one of your plan's concurrent instance slots, so your workflow jobs will queue behind it until you delete it or its 60 minutes run out. Create one when you need to debug something on a Mac directly.

Creating an instance

To create a virtual machine instance, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Instances section in the GetMac dashboard.

    Instances Section

  2. Click the "New Instance" button. This will open the instance creation form.

    Create Instance

  3. Fill in the required details for your instance, such as the instance name, region, image, and type.

  4. Click "Create Instance" to finalize the creation of your instance.

    Instance Created

Your new instance will appear in the Instances page inside the GetMac dashboard, where you can manage and monitor it.

Note: It may take a few moments for the instance to be fully provisioned and ready for use. Usually, it takes about 30-60 seconds.

Creating Your First Instance | GetMac