diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 7ce8922..86c26c6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -36,9 +36,8 @@ jobs:
           [ "$(cat dummy.txt)" = "dummy" ] || { echo "dummy.txt was not restored"; exit 1; }
 
   # Builds and boots a self-hosted runner inside GitHub's infra. Once it's
-  # settled, there is a container with one self-hosted runner running and
-  # waiting for jobs with "ci-storage-test" tag to pick up (based on
-  # docker/Dockerfile image).
+  # settled, there is a running container with one self-hosted runner waiting
+  # for jobs with "ci-storage-test" tag to pick up (based on Dockerfile image).
   self-hosted-runner-build-and-boot-docker-container:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     timeout-minutes: 5
@@ -47,10 +46,14 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v2
-      - name: Build self-hosted runner Docker image
-        run: cd docker && docker-compose build
-      - name: Start self-hosted runner in a Docker container
-        run: cd docker && docker-compose up
+      - name: Start test Docker containers
+        run: |
+          ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -qf /tmp/key -N ""
+          export CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY="$(cat /tmp/key)"
+          set -o xtrace
+          cd docker
+          docker compose up ci-storage-host -d --build
+          docker compose up self-hosted-runner --build
         env:
           GH_REPOSITORY: ${{ github.repository }}
           GH_LABELS: ci-storage-test
@@ -59,7 +62,7 @@ jobs:
   # The test job with ci-storage-test tag which is initially queued, but then is
   # picked up by the self-hosted runner booted in the previous job. In the end,
   # the test job sends SIGINT to the container entrypoint.sh PID, so the
-  # container (based on docker/Dockerfile image) shuts down gracefully.
+  # container (based on Dockerfile image) shuts down gracefully.
   self-hosted-runner-spawn-job-test:
     runs-on: ["self-hosted", "ci-storage-test"]
     steps:
diff --git a/docker/ci-storage-host/Dockerfile b/docker/ci-storage-host/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e57c28f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/ci-storage-host/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+ARG BASE_IMAGE="ubuntu:22.04"
+
+FROM $BASE_IMAGE
+
+ENV GH_REPOSITORY=""
+ENV CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY=""
+
+ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+RUN true \
+    && apt-get update -y \
+    && apt-get upgrade -y \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+      awscli rsync openssh-server \
+      mc gcc git curl wget pv psmisc unzip vim nano telnet net-tools bash-completion \
+      libssl-dev apt-transport-https build-essential ca-certificates locales pkg-config \
+    && sed -i -e "s|#PermitRootLogin.*|PermitRootLogin no|" /etc/ssh/sshd_config \
+    && useradd -m ubuntu \
+    && mkdir -p /home/ubuntu/.ssh \
+    && chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /home/ubuntu/.ssh \
+    && chmod 700 /home/ubuntu/.ssh
+
+COPY --chmod=755 entrypoint.sh /
+
+WORKDIR /
+EXPOSE 22/tcp
+ENTRYPOINT ["/entrypoint.sh"]
diff --git a/docker/ci-storage-host/entrypoint.sh b/docker/ci-storage-host/entrypoint.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f36fb14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/ci-storage-host/entrypoint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# A container which holds ci-storage saved slots. Its ~ubuntu/ci-storage should
+# be persistent across container restarts.
+#
+set -u -e
+
+if [ "${CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY:-}" = "" ]; then
+  echo "CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY is not set, exiting..."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+cd /home/ubuntu
+
+echo "$CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY" > .ssh/id_ed25519
+chmod 600 .ssh/id_ed25519
+ssh-keygen -f .ssh/id_ed25519 -y > .ssh/authorized_keys
+chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu .ssh
+
+# This code is for simplifying the CI tests and allow self-hosted-runner to boot
+# in docker-compose. In real world, the 1st slot created should contain the real
+# files (e.g. a cloned git repo).
+if [ ! -e ci-storage -a "${GH_REPOSITORY:-}" != "" ]; then
+  mkdir -p ci-storage/$GH_REPOSITORY/initial
+  chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu ci-storage
+fi
+
+mkdir -p /var/run/sshd
+exec /usr/sbin/sshd -D -o ListenAddress=0.0.0.0
diff --git a/docker/docker-compose.yml b/docker/docker-compose.yml
index 51d0616..a402b64 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,10 +1,23 @@
 version: "3.4"
 services:
-  ci-storage:
+  ci-storage-host:
     build:
-      context: .
-      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile
+      context: ci-storage-host
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile
+    ports:
+      - 10022:22
+    environment:
+      - GH_REPOSITORY
+      - CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY
+  self-hosted-runner:
+    build:
+      context: self-hosted-runner
+      additional_contexts:
+        root: ..
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile
     environment:
       - GH_REPOSITORY
       - GH_LABELS
       - GH_TOKEN
+      - CI_STORAGE_HOST=ci-storage-host
+      - CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile b/docker/self-hosted-runner/Dockerfile
similarity index 84%
rename from docker/Dockerfile
rename to docker/self-hosted-runner/Dockerfile
index ea7b436..9dc5f07 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/self-hosted-runner/Dockerfile
@@ -7,21 +7,23 @@ ARG RUNNER_VERSION="2.314.1"
 ENV GH_REPOSITORY=""
 ENV GH_LABELS=""
 ENV GH_TOKEN=""
+ENV CI_STORAGE_HOST=""
+ENV CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY=""
 
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 RUN true \
     && apt-get update -y \
     && apt-get upgrade -y \
     && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-      awscli jq gh \
+      awscli jq gh rsync openssh-client \
       mc gcc git curl wget pv psmisc unzip vim nano telnet net-tools bash-completion \
-      libssl-dev apt-transport-https build-essential ca-certificates locales pkg-config
-
-RUN true \
+      libssl-dev apt-transport-https build-essential ca-certificates locales pkg-config \
     && useradd -m ubuntu
 
 USER ubuntu
 RUN true \
+    && mkdir -p /home/ubuntu/.ssh \
+    && chmod 700 /home/ubuntu/.ssh \
     && mkdir /home/ubuntu/actions-runner \
     && cd /home/ubuntu/actions-runner \
     && arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) \
@@ -41,6 +43,7 @@ RUN /home/ubuntu/actions-runner/bin/installdependencies.sh \
 
 USER ubuntu
 COPY --chmod=755 --chown=ubuntu:ubuntu entrypoint.sh /home/ubuntu
+COPY --chmod=755 --from=root ci-storage /usr/bin/ci-storage
 
 WORKDIR /home/ubuntu
 ENTRYPOINT ["./entrypoint.sh"]
@@ -48,4 +51,3 @@ ENTRYPOINT ["./entrypoint.sh"]
 # If overridden in the derived image, evals this as "ubuntu" user as a shell
 # script after config.sh, but before run.sh.
 CMD []
-
diff --git a/docker/self-hosted-runner/README.md b/docker/self-hosted-runner/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bcfa6f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/self-hosted-runner/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Auto-Scaling Self-Hosted Runner Image
+
+You can build an image from this Dockerfile and use it to launch as many
+self-hosted runners as you want. An example scenario:
+
+1. Build an image based off this Dockerfile and publish it. You'll likely want
+   to install some more software into that image (e.g. Node, Python etc.), so it
+   may make sense to extend the base image with your own commands.
+2. Run AWS ECS cluster (with e.g. AWS Fargate) and use the image you just
+   published. Configure its environment variables accordingly: GH_REPOSITORY,
+   GH_LABELS, GH_TOKEN etc. - see details in entrypoint.sh.
+3. Set up auto-scaling rules in the ECS cluster based on the containers' CPU
+   usage. The running containers are safe to shut down at anytime if it's done
+   gracefully and with high timeout (to let all the running workflow jobs finish
+   there and de-register the runner).
+4. And here comes the perf magic: when the container first boots, but before it
+   becomes available for the jobs, it pre-initializes its work directory from
+   ci-storage slots storage (see CI_STORAGE_HOST). So when a job is picked up,
+   it already has its work directory pre-created and having most of the build
+   artifacts of someone else. If the job then uses ci-storage GitHub action to
+   restore the files from a slot, it will be very quick, because most of the
+   files are already there.
diff --git a/docker/entrypoint.sh b/docker/self-hosted-runner/entrypoint.sh
similarity index 80%
rename from docker/entrypoint.sh
rename to docker/self-hosted-runner/entrypoint.sh
index 2ae1d98..ddd5ee5 100644
--- a/docker/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/docker/self-hosted-runner/entrypoint.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,22 @@ set -u -e -o xtrace
 cd ./actions-runner
 
 name="ci-storage-$(hostname)"
+repo_name="${GH_REPOSITORY##*/}"
+local_dir=_work/$repo_name/$repo_name
+
+set +o xtrace
+if [ "${CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY:-}" != "" ]; then
+  echo "$CI_STORAGE_HOST_SSH_KEY" > ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
+  chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
+fi
+set -o xtrace
+
+if [ "${CI_STORAGE_HOST:-}" != "" ]; then
+  ssh-keyscan -H "$CI_STORAGE_HOST" >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
+  chmod 600 ~/.ssh/known_hosts
+  mkdir -p $local_dir
+  ci-storage --storage-host="$CI_STORAGE_HOST" --storage-dir="~/ci-storage/$GH_REPOSITORY" --slot-id="*" --local-dir="$local_dir" load
+fi
 
 token=$(gh api -X POST --jq .token "repos/$GH_REPOSITORY/actions/runners/registration-token")
 ./config.sh \