Gitea cheatsheet

Service and access

Check	Description
`systemctl status gitea`	Service status (package/systemd)
`ss -tlnp \| grep 3000`	Default HTTP listen port
`/etc/gitea/app.ini`	Main configuration
`APP_DATA_PATH`	Repos, LFS, Actions data

Git clone URLs

git clone https://gitea.example.com/org/repo.git
git clone git@gitea.example.com:org/repo.git
# HTTPS with token: username + PAT as password
git ls-remote https://gitea.example.com/org/repo.git

Admin CLI (gitea)

gitea --help
gitea admin user list
gitea admin user create --admin --username alice --password '...' --email a@example.com
gitea dump -c /etc/gitea/app.ini
gitea doctor check --config /etc/gitea/app.ini

Actions workflow sketch

# .gitea/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: make build test

act_runner

# Register (token from Gitea UI)
./act_runner register --instance https://gitea.example.com --token TOKEN
./act_runner daemon
# Labels must match runs-on: in workflows
systemctl status act_runner
journalctl -u act_runner -f

Useful app.ini knobs

Setting	Notes
`ROOT_URL`	Public URL including trailing slash path if any
`[database]`	SQLite vs Postgres/MySQL
`[actions] ENABLED`	Turn on Gitea Actions
`[server] SSH_DOMAIN / SSH_PORT`	Clone SSH endpoint
`APP_DATA_PATH`	Persistent data root

API quick checks

curl -sS https://gitea.example.com/api/v1/version
curl -sS -H "Authorization: token $TOKEN" \
  https://gitea.example.com/api/v1/user/repos

Logs and disk

Path / command	Description
`journalctl -u gitea -f`	systemd journal
UI → Actions → run log	Per-job CI output
`du -sh $APP_DATA_PATH/*`	Data directory usage
Repo → Settings → Webhooks	Delivery history

Pro tips

Set ROOT_URL correctly before blaming the reverse proxy
Prefer Postgres (or MySQL) over SQLite once you have concurrent users or Actions
Match runner labels exactly to runs-on: — silent queue otherwise
Use PATs for HTTPS Git and API; disable password auth over HTTP if exposed
Back up both the database and APP_DATA_PATH together

Practice scenarios

Hands-on Gitea scenarios on live Linux VMs: gitea