I built a local GitHub Actions runner that pauses so you can shell into the failed step

Problem

I kept hitting: a step fails in CI, logs aren't enough, and "act" still feels all-or-nothing.

Solution

ciwalk runs GHA workflows locally in Docker and can pause on failure (or at a breakpoint). You drop into a shell in the same container - same env/cwd as the step - fix or inspect, then retry/continue/abort.

Install

• uv tool install ciwalk
• pip install ciwalk

Demo

https://github.com/kiwi-07/ciwalk (GIF in README)

Honest MVP limits

• No matrix/secrets/full expressions yet.
• Built for the "why did this shell step fail?" cases.

If you try it on a real workflow that breaks, I'd love the issue report.

Detailed Blog

https://ankitpatil.pages.dev/blog/ciwalk