Larissa Fortuna outlines the deprecation timeline for the GitHub Actions macOS 13 runner image, including migration steps and upcoming support changes for Intel and Apple Silicon architectures.

Retirement of GitHub Actions macOS 13 Runner Image

Author: Larissa Fortuna

Overview

GitHub has announced the retirement of the macOS 13 runner image in GitHub Actions, effective December 4th, 2025. To raise awareness among users, jobs utilizing the macos-13 image will temporarily fail during several scheduled brownout time periods throughout November 2025:

November 4, 14:00 UTC – November 5, 00:00 UTC
November 11, 14:00 UTC – November 12, 00:00 UTC
November 18, 14:00 UTC – November 19, 00:00 UTC
November 25, 14:00 UTC – November 26, 00:00 UTC

Deprecated Labels

macos-13
macos-13-large
macos-13-xlarge

Migration Recommendations

If your workflow is architecture agnostic, consider moving to any of the ARM64-based runner labels:
- macos-15, macos-latest, macos-14, macos-14-xlarge, macos-latest-xlarge, or macos-15-xlarge
If you require x86_64 (Intel) architecture, migrate to:
- macos-15-intel (new), macos-14-large, macos-latest-large, or macos-15-large

For migration details and label updates, visit the runner images repository.

Future Deprecation: macOS Intel Support

Apple has ended support for x86_64 (Intel) architecture. GitHub Actions will end support for Intel runners on macOS after the retirement of the macOS 15 runner image in Fall 2027. Users are encouraged to transition workloads to ARM64-based (Apple Silicon) runners proactively to ensure workflow compatibility.

Key Takeaways

Plan Migration: Update your workflows to use supported runner images well before the deadlines.
Future-proofing: Prepare for the eventual discontinuation of Intel support in GitHub Actions on macOS platforms.

For more information, see the official announcement and track label updates in the runner images repository.

This post appeared first on “The GitHub Blog”. Read the entire article here