diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c33ca06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+runner
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6c4ef3a..5fc3b9a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,12 +2,18 @@
 
 Forgejo instance serving https://forge.karnov.club.
 
-## Maintaining
+## Usage
+
+### Starting the Forgejo instance
 
 Using [spud](https://forge.karnov.club/spadinastan/spud), just `spud start ./service.yml`!
 
 ### Starting runners
 
+Runner metadata (i.e. version, per-instance configuration) is defined under `metadata.json`.
+
+Before starting the runners, they should be registered via `RUNNER_HOME=... ./runners.py register`. An interactive prompt needs to be filled for each runner to enter details and tokens.
+
 ```
-FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT=... ./start-action-runner.sh
+RUNNER_HOME=<path> ./runners.py start
 ```
diff --git a/config.yml b/config.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 0d8840a..0000000
--- a/config.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
-log:
-  level: info
-
-runner:
-  file: .runner
-  # Execute how many tasks concurrently at the same time.
-  capacity: 3
-  # Extra environment variables to run jobs.
-  envs:
-    CI: 1
-  # Extra environment variables to run jobs from a file.
-  # It will be ignored if it's empty or the file doesn't exist.
-  env_file: .env
-  # The timeout for a job to be finished.
-  # Please note that the Forgejo instance also has a timeout (3h by default) for the job.
-  # So the job could be stopped by the Forgejo instance if it's timeout is shorter than this.
-  timeout: 10m
-  # Whether skip verifying the TLS certificate of the Forgejo instance.
-  insecure: false
-  # The timeout for fetching the job from the Forgejo instance.
-  fetch_timeout: 5s
-  # The interval for fetching the job from the Forgejo instance.
-  fetch_interval: 2s
-  # The labels of a runner are used to determine which jobs the runner can run, and how to run them.
-  # Like: ["macos-arm64:host", "ubuntu-latest:docker://node:16-bullseye", "ubuntu-22.04:docker://node:16-bullseye"]
-  # If it's empty when registering, it will ask for inputting labels.
-  # If it's empty when execute `deamon`, will use labels in `.runner` file.
-  labels: [
-    "runner-latest:docker://localhost:5000/forge-runners/debian-12.6-slim:latest"
-  ]
-
-cache:
-  # Enable cache server to use actions/cache.
-  enabled: true
-  # The directory to store the cache data.
-  # If it's empty, the cache data will be stored in $HOME/.cache/actcache.
-  dir: ""
-  # The host of the cache server.
-  # It's not for the address to listen, but the address to connect from job containers.
-  # So 0.0.0.0 is a bad choice, leave it empty to detect automatically.
-  host: ""
-  # The port of the cache server.
-  # 0 means to use a random available port.
-  port: 0
-  # The external cache server URL. Valid only when enable is true.
-  # If it's specified, act_runner will use this URL as the ACTIONS_CACHE_URL rather than start a server by itself.
-  # The URL should generally end with "/".
-  external_server: ""
-
-container:
-  # Specifies the network to which the container will connect.
-  # Could be host, bridge or the name of a custom network.
-  # If it's empty, create a network automatically.
-  network: ""
-  # Whether to create networks with IPv6 enabled. Requires the Docker daemon to be set up accordingly.
-  # Only takes effect if "network" is set to "".
-  enable_ipv6: false
-  # Whether to use privileged mode or not when launching task containers (privileged mode is required for Docker-in-Docker).
-  privileged: false
-  # And other options to be used when the container is started (eg, --add-host=my.forgejo.url:host-gateway).
-  options:
-  # The parent directory of a job's working directory.
-  # If it's empty, /workspace will be used.
-  workdir_parent:
-  # Volumes (including bind mounts) can be mounted to containers. Glob syntax is supported, see https://github.com/gobwas/glob
-  # You can specify multiple volumes. If the sequence is empty, no volumes can be mounted.
-  # For example, if you only allow containers to mount the `data` volume and all the json files in `/src`, you should change the config to:
-  # valid_volumes:
-  #   - data
-  #   - /src/*.json
-  # If you want to allow any volume, please use the following configuration:
-  # valid_volumes:
-  #   - '**'
-  valid_volumes: []
-  # overrides the docker client host with the specified one.
-  # If it's empty, act_runner will find an available docker host automatically.
-  # If it's "-", act_runner will find an available docker host automatically, but the docker host won't be mounted to the job containers and service containers.
-  # If it's not empty or "-", the specified docker host will be used. An error will be returned if it doesn't work.
-  docker_host: ""
-  # Pull docker image(s) even if already present
-  force_pull: false
-
-host:
-  # The parent directory of a job's working directory.
-  # If it's empty, $HOME/.cache/act/ will be used.
-  workdir_parent:
diff --git a/config/imagefactory_runner.yml b/config/imagefactory_runner.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9031f95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/imagefactory_runner.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+log:
+  level: info
+
+runner:
+  file: .runner
+  capacity: 1
+  envs:
+    CI: 1
+  timeout: 10m
+  insecure: false
+  fetch_timeout: 5s
+  fetch_interval: 2s
+  labels: [
+    "imagefactory-latest:docker://cr.home.karnov.club/forge-runners/debian-12.6-slim:latest"
+  ]
+
+cache:
+  enabled: true
+  dir: ""
+  host: ""
+  port: 0
+  external_server: ""
+
+container:
+  network: ""
+  enable_ipv6: false
+  privileged: true
+  options:
+  workdir_parent:
+  valid_volumes: []
+  docker_host: ""
+  force_pull: false
+
+host:
+  workdir_parent:
diff --git a/config/regular_runner.yml b/config/regular_runner.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54446af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/regular_runner.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+log:
+  level: info
+
+runner:
+  file: .runner
+  capacity: 3
+  envs:
+    CI: 1
+  env_file: .env
+  timeout: 10m
+  insecure: false
+  fetch_timeout: 5s
+  fetch_interval: 2s
+  labels: [
+    "runner-latest:docker://cr.home.karnov.club/forge-runners/debian-12.6-slim:latest"
+  ]
+
+cache:
+  enabled: true
+  dir: ""
+  host: ""
+  port: 0
+  external_server: ""
+
+container:
+  network: ""
+  enable_ipv6: false
+  privileged: false
+  options:
+  workdir_parent:
+  valid_volumes: []
+  docker_host: ""
+  force_pull: false
+
+host:
+  workdir_parent:
diff --git a/metadata.json b/metadata.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3c940f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metadata.json
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+{
+    "runner_version": "4.0.1",
+    "instances": [
+        {
+            "config": "./config/regular_runner.yml",
+            "name": "regular"
+        },
+        {
+            "config": "./config/imagefactory_runner.yml",
+            "name": "imagefactory"
+        }
+    ]
+}
diff --git a/runners.py b/runners.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..d4995dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/runners.py
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+#!/bin/python
+
+from urllib.request import urlretrieve
+import pathlib
+import stat
+import logging
+import math
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import json
+import typing
+import multiprocessing
+import os
+
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class RunnerInstance(typing.TypedDict):
+    config: str
+    name: str
+
+
+class Metadata(typing.TypedDict):
+    runner_version: str
+    instances: list[RunnerInstance]
+
+
+def get_runner_url(version: str) -> str:
+    """Returns a formatted URL pointing to a specific runner release."""
+    return f"https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/releases/download/v{version}/forgejo-runner-{version}-linux-amd64"
+
+
+def get_runner_runtime(runner_root: pathlib.Path, version: str) -> pathlib.Path:
+    """
+    Downloads the runner binary of the selected version if it doesn't exist already, makes it
+    executable and returns its path.
+    """
+    runner_bin_path = runner_root.joinpath(f"runner_{version}")
+
+    def report(chunk, chunk_size, total_size):
+        total_chunks = "unknown"
+
+        if total_size != -1:
+            total_chunks = math.ceil(total_size / chunk_size)
+
+        if not chunk % 100 or chunk == total_chunks:
+            logger.info(f"Chunk {chunk} / {total_chunks} downloaded.")
+
+    source_url = get_runner_url(version)
+
+    if not runner_bin_path.exists():
+        urlretrieve(source_url, runner_bin_path, reporthook=report)
+
+    if not runner_bin_path.exists():
+        raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to download runner from {source_url}.")
+
+    runner_bin_path.chmod(runner_bin_path.stat().st_mode | stat.S_IEXEC)
+
+    return runner_bin_path
+
+
+def get_runners_metadata(metadata_path: pathlib.Path) -> Metadata:
+    if not metadata_path.exists():
+        raise RuntimeError("Failed to open metadata file.")
+
+    with open(metadata_path, "r", encoding="utf8") as metadata_file:
+        metadata = json.load(metadata_file)
+
+    return metadata
+
+
+def start_runner(runner_path: pathlib.Path, meta: RunnerInstance):
+    if not pathlib.Path(meta["config"]).exists():
+        raise RuntimeError(f"Runner config path does not exist: {meta['config']}")
+
+    runner_root = runner_path.parent.joinpath(f"runner__{meta['name']}")
+    runner_root.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+
+    result = subprocess.Popen(
+        [
+            runner_path.resolve(),
+            "--config",
+            pathlib.Path(meta["config"]).resolve(),
+            "daemon",
+        ],
+        cwd=runner_root,
+    )
+
+    if result.returncode != 0:
+        print(result)
+        raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to start runner {meta['name']}.")
+
+
+def start_runners(instances: list[RunnerInstance], runner_path: pathlib.Path):
+    """Starts a runner instance with the given configuration."""
+    if not runner_path.exists():
+        raise RuntimeError(f"Runner path does not exist: {runner_path}")
+
+    with multiprocessing.Pool(2) as p:
+        p.starmap(
+            start_runner,
+            [(bin_path, runner_metadata) for runner_metadata in metadata["instances"]],
+        )
+
+
+def register_runners(instances: list[RunnerInstance], runner_bin_path: pathlib.Path):
+    for runner_metadata in metadata["instances"]:
+        runner_path = runner_root.joinpath(f"runner__{runner_metadata['name']}")
+        runner_path.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
+        result = subprocess.run([bin_path, "register"], cwd=runner_path)
+
+        if result.returncode != 0:
+            raise RuntimeError("Failed to register runner.")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    argcount = len(sys.argv)
+    if 2 > argcount > 3:
+        raise RuntimeError("Insufficient arguments.")
+
+    runner_root = pathlib.Path(os.getenv("RUNNER_ROOT", pathlib.Path.cwd()))
+    runner_root.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
+
+    metadata = get_runners_metadata(pathlib.Path.cwd().joinpath("metadata.json"))
+    cmd = sys.argv[1]
+
+    bin_path = get_runner_runtime(runner_root, metadata["runner_version"])
+
+    if cmd == "register":
+        register_runners(metadata["instances"], bin_path)
+
+    elif cmd == "start":
+        start_runners(metadata["instances"], bin_path)
diff --git a/start-action-runner.sh b/start-action-runner.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index a982c9c..0000000
--- a/start-action-runner.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/bash
-
-RUNNER_VERSION=4.0.1
-
-wget -O "$FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT"/forgejo-runner https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/releases/download/v$RUNNER_VERSION/forgejo-runner-$RUNNER_VERSION-linux-amd64 
-chmod +x "$FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT"/forgejo-runner
-wget -O forgejo-runner.asc https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner/releases/download/v$RUNNER_VERSION/forgejo-runner-$RUNNER_VERSION-linux-amd64.asc
-gpg --keyserver keys.openpgp.org --recv EB114F5E6C0DC2BCDD183550A4B61A2DC5923710
-gpg --verify forgejo-runner.asc "$FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT"/forgejo-runner
-rm forgejo-runner.asc
-
-
-if [ -f "$FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT/.runner" ]; then
-    echo "Found runner state."
-    (
-        cp ./config.yml "$FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT/config.yml"
-        cd "$FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT" || exit
-        "$FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT"/forgejo-runner --config "${FORGEJO_RUNNER_CONFIG:=./config.yml}" daemon &
-    )
-else
-    echo "Use $FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT/forgejo-runner register ... to register the runner"
-    echo "Once registered, use $FORGEJO_RUNNER_ROOT/forgejo-runner --config <path-to-config> daemon & to start"
-fi