diff --git a/servers/gcp/gitea-runner.tf b/servers/gcp/gitea-runner.tf
index d3a9b30..6509e86 100644
--- a/servers/gcp/gitea-runner.tf
+++ b/servers/gcp/gitea-runner.tf
@@ -254,6 +254,46 @@ resource "google_service_account_iam_member" "ci_pusher_wif_neuron_web" {
   member             = "principalSet://iam.googleapis.com/${google_iam_workload_identity_pool.gitea.name}/attribute.repository/neuron-technologies/neuron-web"
 }
 
+# ── Gitea Actions runner on GKE ───────────────────────────────────────────────
+# A k8s Deployment in the `ci` namespace on GKE runs act_runner with a DinD
+# sidecar. The pod uses this GCP SA via Workload Identity to pull the runner
+# registration token from Secret Manager at startup.
+#
+# See servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/ for the k8s manifests.
+
+resource "google_service_account" "gitea_runner_gke" {
+  account_id   = "gitea-runner-gke"
+  display_name = "Gitea Actions runner (GKE identity)"
+  description  = "Workload Identity SA for the GKE-hosted Gitea Actions runner. Read-only access to the registration token."
+  project      = var.project_id
+}
+
+# Allow the GKE SA to read the runner registration token from Secret Manager.
+resource "google_secret_manager_secret_iam_member" "runner_gke_token_access" {
+  project   = var.project_id
+  secret_id = "gitea-runner-token"
+  role      = "roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor"
+  member    = "serviceAccount:${google_service_account.gitea_runner_gke.email}"
+}
+
+# Workload Identity binding — the k8s SA `gitea-runner` in the `ci` namespace
+# can impersonate this GCP SA without a JSON key file.
+resource "google_service_account_iam_member" "gitea_runner_gke_workload_identity" {
+  service_account_id = google_service_account.gitea_runner_gke.name
+  role               = "roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser"
+  member             = "serviceAccount:${var.project_id}.svc.id.goog[ci/gitea-runner]"
+
+  depends_on = [google_container_cluster.neuron_platform]
+}
+
+# Allow the runner to pull images from Artifact Registry (needed for build jobs
+# that pull from neuron-* repos, and for the runner's own ci-base image).
+resource "google_project_iam_member" "gitea_runner_gke_ar_reader" {
+  project = var.project_id
+  role    = "roles/artifactregistry.reader"
+  member  = "serviceAccount:${google_service_account.gitea_runner_gke.email}"
+}
+
 # ── Outputs ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 output "gitea_runner_vm_name" {
diff --git a/servers/gcp/k8s/argocd-apps/gitea-runner-gke.yaml b/servers/gcp/k8s/argocd-apps/gitea-runner-gke.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab67f62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/servers/gcp/k8s/argocd-apps/gitea-runner-gke.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Application
+metadata:
+  name: gitea-runner-gke
+  namespace: argocd
+spec:
+  project: default
+  source:
+    repoURL: https://git.neuralplatform.ai/will/infrastructure.git
+    targetRevision: main
+    path: servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner
+  destination:
+    server: https://34.63.89.52
+    namespace: ci
+  ignoreDifferences:
+    - group: apps
+      kind: Deployment
+      jsonPointers:
+        - /status
+  syncPolicy:
+    automated:
+      prune: true
+      selfHeal: true
+    syncOptions:
+      - CreateNamespace=true
+      - ServerSideApply=true
diff --git a/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/deployment.yaml b/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/deployment.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7cc6659
--- /dev/null
+++ b/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/deployment.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+---
+# Gitea Actions runner on GKE.
+#
+# Architecture:
+#   - init container registers the runner with Gitea (--no-interactive, idempotent)
+#   - main container runs act_runner daemon
+#   - docker:dind sidecar provides Docker for build jobs (privileged)
+#   - emptyDir /data persists runner state within a pod lifetime
+#
+# The runner uses Docker-in-Docker (DinD) rather than a host socket because
+# GKE Autopilot does not expose the node's Docker socket.
+# DinD requires privileged mode — the ci namespace has
+# pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: privileged (see namespace.yaml).
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+kind: Deployment
+metadata:
+  name: gitea-runner
+  namespace: ci
+  labels:
+    app: gitea-runner
+spec:
+  replicas: 1
+  selector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app: gitea-runner
+  template:
+    metadata:
+      labels:
+        app: gitea-runner
+    spec:
+      serviceAccountName: gitea-runner
+      securityContext:
+        runAsNonRoot: false
+      initContainers:
+        - name: register
+          image: us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/neuron-785695/neuron-ci/ci-base:latest
+          command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
+          args:
+            - |
+              # Idempotent registration — skip if already registered (.runner file exists).
+              if [ -f /data/.runner ]; then
+                echo "Runner already registered, skipping."
+              else
+                act_runner register \
+                  --instance "${GITEA_INSTANCE_URL}" \
+                  --token "${GITEA_RUNNER_REGISTRATION_TOKEN}" \
+                  --name "gke-runner-$(hostname)" \
+                  --labels "ubuntu-latest:docker://us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/neuron-785695/neuron-ci/ci-base:latest,ubuntu-24.04:docker://us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/neuron-785695/neuron-ci/ci-base:latest,linux,x64" \
+                  --no-interactive
+              fi
+              cat > /data/config.yaml << 'CONFIGEOF'
+              runner:
+                capacity: 2
+                timeout: 3h
+              container:
+                network: host
+                docker_host: "tcp://localhost:2375"
+                force_pull: true
+                valid_volumes: []
+                default_image: "us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/neuron-785695/neuron-ci/ci-base:latest"
+                env:
+                  GITEA_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: ""
+                  BASH_ENV: "/usr/local/bin/git-ssh-init.sh"
+              CONFIGEOF
+          env:
+            - name: GITEA_INSTANCE_URL
+              value: "https://git.neuralplatform.ai"
+            - name: DOCKER_HOST
+              value: "tcp://localhost:2375"
+          envFrom:
+            - secretRef:
+                name: gitea-runner-token
+          volumeMounts:
+            - mountPath: /data
+              name: data
+          workingDir: /data
+      containers:
+        - name: runner
+          image: us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/neuron-785695/neuron-ci/ci-base:latest
+          command: ["act_runner", "daemon", "--config", "/data/config.yaml"]
+          env:
+            - name: GITEA_INSTANCE_URL
+              value: "https://git.neuralplatform.ai"
+            - name: DOCKER_HOST
+              value: "tcp://localhost:2375"
+          envFrom:
+            - secretRef:
+                name: gitea-runner-token
+          resources:
+            requests:
+              cpu: "500m"
+              memory: "512Mi"
+            limits:
+              cpu: "4"
+              memory: "4Gi"
+          volumeMounts:
+            - mountPath: /data
+              name: data
+          workingDir: /data
+        - name: dind
+          image: docker:dind
+          securityContext:
+            privileged: true
+          env:
+            - name: DOCKER_TLS_CERTDIR
+              value: ""
+          resources:
+            requests:
+              cpu: "500m"
+              memory: "512Mi"
+            limits:
+              cpu: "4"
+              memory: "4Gi"
+          volumeMounts:
+            - mountPath: /var/lib/docker
+              name: docker-storage
+      volumes:
+        - name: data
+          emptyDir: {}
+        - name: docker-storage
+          emptyDir: {}
diff --git a/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/external-secrets.yaml b/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/external-secrets.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b0126b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/external-secrets.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+---
+# SecretStore for the CI namespace — uses GCP Secret Manager via Workload Identity.
+# The gitea-runner-gke GCP SA has secretmanager.secretAccessor on gitea-runner-token
+# (see servers/gcp/gitea-runner.tf).
+apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1
+kind: SecretStore
+metadata:
+  name: gcp-secretmanager
+  namespace: ci
+spec:
+  provider:
+    gcpsm:
+      projectID: neuron-785695
+      auth:
+        workloadIdentity:
+          clusterLocation: us-central1
+          clusterName: neuron-platform
+          serviceAccountRef:
+            name: gitea-runner
+            namespace: ci
+---
+# Pull the Gitea runner registration token from Secret Manager into a k8s Secret.
+apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1
+kind: ExternalSecret
+metadata:
+  name: gitea-runner-token
+  namespace: ci
+spec:
+  refreshInterval: 1h
+  secretStoreRef:
+    name: gcp-secretmanager
+    kind: SecretStore
+  target:
+    name: gitea-runner-token
+    creationPolicy: Owner
+  data:
+    - secretKey: GITEA_RUNNER_REGISTRATION_TOKEN
+      remoteRef:
+        key: gitea-runner-token
diff --git a/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/namespace.yaml b/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/namespace.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a4fa09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/namespace.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Namespace
+metadata:
+  name: ci
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: ci
+    # DinD (Docker-in-Docker) requires privileged pods.
+    pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: privileged
diff --git a/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/serviceaccount.yaml b/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/serviceaccount.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b7e8dde
--- /dev/null
+++ b/servers/gcp/k8s/gitea-runner/serviceaccount.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: ServiceAccount
+metadata:
+  name: gitea-runner
+  namespace: ci
+  annotations:
+    # Workload Identity — allows ESO (and optionally the runner pod) to
+    # authenticate to GCP Secret Manager as the gitea-runner-gke GCP SA
+    # without a JSON key file.
+    # The GCP SA binding is in servers/gcp/gitea-runner.tf (gitea_runner_gke_workload_identity).
+    iam.gke.io/gcp-service-account: gitea-runner-gke@neuron-785695.iam.gserviceaccount.com