Runners
With signageOS, you can use Runners to deploy and execute continuous, long-running background tasks on your devices. Runners are designed for scenarios that require persistent, independent logic, such as custom network management, real-time monitoring of external sensors, or complex device-side workflows.
How to create your Runners?
Head to the getting started guide.
Assigning and managing runners
Once your Runners are uploaded to your organization, navigate to Box to manage their deployment.
- Device detail: On any device detail page, open the "Runners" tab. Here, you can assign a Runner, provide its configuration, and then activate or deactivate it.
- Bulk actions: You can use bulk actions to assign, configure, activate, or deactivate a Runner across many devices simultaneously.
- Policies: Runners can also be deployed via policies for initial assignment and configuration.
How Runners work
A Runner is designed for continuous execution. Once activated, it starts and runs indefinitely as a background process on the device. To ensure stability, signageOS actively monitors the health of each Runner and reports its status back to Box. If a Runner fails, the system can be configured to automatically restart it.
Custom telemetry
Runners are ideal for sending a constant stream of custom telemetry data. This allows you to have a real-time view of the custom processes you are managing on the device. All telemetry is visible within the Runner's section in the device detail view in Box.
You can also subscribe to and retrieve all custom telemetry via the signageOS REST API. You can find the Runners REST API documentation under the following link.
Alerting on Runner telemetry
The constant stream of telemetry from your Runners is not just for viewing; it's the foundation for a proactive monitoring strategy. By creating alert rules based on this data, you can be automatically notified of operational issues, anomalies, or compliance failures.
Runner list
The Runners page in Box displays all Runners available in your organization. You can navigate to it from the main sidebar.
Search
Use the search bar at the top of the page to find Runners by name. The search is applied instantly as you type.
Filtering
Click the Filter button to open the filter drawer. You can narrow down the list by:
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
| Platform | Select one or more platforms (Tizen, webOS, Android, Linux, etc.) to show only Runners that target those platforms. |
| Tags | Select one or more tags to show only Runners that have been tagged with them. Tags are organized in a tree structure matching your organization's tag hierarchy. |
Active filters are shown as removable labels above the list. Click the x on any label to remove that filter, or use the Reset button inside the filter drawer to clear all filters at once.
Sorting and pagination
The Runner list supports sorting and configurable page sizes. Filters, search terms, and sort settings are persisted in the URL, so you can bookmark or share a filtered view.