diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/vm-runtime-smoke.yml b/.gitea/workflows/vm-runtime-smoke.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e2421c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/vm-runtime-smoke.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+---
+name: VM runtime smoke
+
+# yamllint disable-line rule:truthy
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+jobs:
+  runtime:
+    runs-on: [self-hosted, vm-dev]
+    steps:
+      - name: Verify workload identity socket
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          : "${SPIFFE_ENDPOINT_SOCKET:?SPIFFE_ENDPOINT_SOCKET is required}"
+          test -S "$SPIFFE_ENDPOINT_SOCKET"
+
+      - name: Verify Docker daemon
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          format='{{json .ServerVersion}} {{json .Driver}}'
+          format="$format {{json .CgroupVersion}}"
+          docker info --format "$format"
+
+      - name: Run and clean nested container
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          name=vm-runtime-smoke
+          trap 'docker rm --force "$name" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true' EXIT
+          output=$(docker run --name "$name" alpine:3.22 /bin/sh -c \
+            'test "$(uname -m)" = x86_64 && printf vm-runtime-ok')
+          test "$output" = vm-runtime-ok