Announcing ARM Machines on Semaphore

Today, we’re excited to announce that as of December 1st, ARM-based machine types on Semaphore have moved into **general availability**. This new R1 generation of machines brings native ARM architecture support to your CI/CD pipelines. 

In practice, that means you can build, test, and deploy software on the same CPU architecture that’s increasingly used in cloud servers and devices, opening up faster builds and more reliable cross-platform testing for all Semaphore users.

Who are these for?

If your application runs on or is compiled for ARM-based environments, these machines were made for you. Here are some practical CI/CD use cases where ARM machines can make a big difference:

• Cross-platform CI pipelines: Run jobs on both x86_64 and ARM in parallel to ensure your code works flawlessly on multiple architectures. For example, you can build and test on a regular x86 machine and an ARM machine in the same workflow, guaranteeing consistent results across platforms.
• Building ARM-native binaries and containers: Compile software directly on ARM to produce binaries or Docker images optimized for ARM64, without needing complicated cross-compilation toolchains. This is great for projects that distribute CLI tools, libraries, or container images for embedded hardware, AWS Graviton, or other ARM systems.
• Integration tests for ARM-based cloud deployments: If your production runs on ARM-powered servers (like AWS Graviton instances or Ampere-based VMs), you can now run integration and end-to-end tests in an identical CPU environment. This helps catch architecture-specific issues early, giving you confidence that your app will behave the same way in ARM-based staging or production.

Getting Started with ARM Machines

Getting up and running with ARM machines on Semaphore is simple. You can select the new machine types in your pipeline configuration just like any other agent. 

If you prefer to use YAML for your pipelines, the following example configured the ARM environment paired with an Ubuntu 24.04 ARM OS image:

version: 1.0
name: ARM-Based Pipeline

agent:
  machine:
    type: r1-standard-4
    os_image: ubuntu2404

Try ARM Machines Today

These new machine types on Semaphore allows seamless ARM architecture building and testing. R1 machines remove the guesswork and inefficiency of emulation by giving you a fully native ARM environment for your CI/CD needs.

For more information, check out the official Semaphore documentation on machine types. And, as always, feel free to reach out with feedback or support.

Happy building on ARM! 🚀