diff --git a/setup/configure_runners.sh b/setup/configure_runners.sh
index 4517af6..7828f4a 100755
--- a/setup/configure_runners.sh
+++ b/setup/configure_runners.sh
@@ -93,12 +93,19 @@ validate_runner_path() {
 
 validate_runner_repos() {
   if [[ "$1" == "all" ]]; then return 0; fi
-  # Check against names in REPO_NAMES
-  local _rn
-  for _rn in ${REPO_NAMES:-}; do
-    [[ "$1" == "$_rn" ]] && return 0
+  # Accept comma-separated list of repo names (e.g. "augur,periodvault")
+  local _input _rn _found _item
+  IFS=',' read -ra _input <<< "$1"
+  for _item in "${_input[@]}"; do
+    _item="${_item## }"; _item="${_item%% }"  # trim spaces
+    [[ -z "$_item" ]] && return 1
+    _found=0
+    for _rn in ${REPO_NAMES:-}; do
+      if [[ "$_item" == "$_rn" ]]; then _found=1; break; fi
+    done
+    [[ $_found -eq 0 ]] && return 1
   done
-  return 1
+  return 0
 }
 
 validate_capacity() {
@@ -178,7 +185,7 @@ prompt_field() {
         ;;
       runner_repos)
         if validate_runner_repos "$value"; then break; fi
-        printf '%b  Invalid: must be "all" or a known repo name%b\n' "$C_RED" "$C_RESET"
+        printf '%b  Invalid: must be "all" or comma-separated repo names from: %s%b\n' "$C_RED" "${REPO_NAMES:-<no repos in .env>}" "$C_RESET"
         ;;
       capacity)
         if validate_capacity "$value"; then break; fi
@@ -472,12 +479,8 @@ for ((i = 0; i < runner_count; i++)); do
     repos_default=$(ini_default_get "$ex_name" "repos" "all")
   fi
   if [[ -z "$repos_default" ]]; then repos_default="all"; fi
-  # Build hint with known repo names
-  repos_hint="token scope: all"
-  for _rn in ${REPO_NAMES:-}; do
-    repos_hint="${repos_hint}, ${_rn}"
-  done
-  prompt_field "repos" "$repos_hint" "runner_repos" "$repos_default"
+  # "all" = instance-level. Comma-separated repo names = one runner entry per repo.
+  prompt_field "repos" "\"all\" or comma-separated repo names (e.g. augur,periodvault)" "runner_repos" "$repos_default"
   save_runner_field "$r_name" "repos" "$PROMPT_RESULT"
 
   # --- capacity ---
@@ -540,6 +543,47 @@ for ((i = 0; i < runner_count; i++)); do
   fi
 done
 
+# ===========================================================================
+# Expand multi-repo runners into one section per repo.
+# A single act_runner process can only register to one repo, so "repos=a,b"
+# becomes two INI sections: [name-a] repos=a and [name-b] repos=b.
+# ===========================================================================
+EXPANDED_NAMES=()
+_orig_path=""
+for r_name in "${COLLECTED_NAMES[@]}"; do
+  r_repos="$(_cdata_get "${r_name}:repos")"
+  if [[ "$r_repos" == "all" ]] || [[ "$r_repos" != *,* ]]; then
+    EXPANDED_NAMES+=("$r_name")
+    continue
+  fi
+  # Multi-repo: split and create per-repo sections
+  IFS=',' read -ra _repo_list <<< "$r_repos"
+  for _repo in "${_repo_list[@]}"; do
+    _repo="${_repo## }"; _repo="${_repo%% }"  # trim spaces
+    _expanded_name="${r_name}-${_repo}"
+    # Copy all fields from the original section, override repos and name
+    ini_copy_section "$RUNNERS_CONF" "$r_name" "$_expanded_name"
+    ini_set "$RUNNERS_CONF" "$_expanded_name" "repos" "$_repo"
+    # Update data_path to avoid collisions
+    _orig_path=$(ini_get "$RUNNERS_CONF" "$r_name" "data_path" "")
+    if [[ -n "$_orig_path" ]]; then
+      ini_set "$RUNNERS_CONF" "$_expanded_name" "data_path" "${_orig_path%/}-${_repo}"
+    fi
+    # Track for summary
+    _cdata_set "${_expanded_name}:host" "$(_cdata_get "${r_name}:host")"
+    _cdata_set "${_expanded_name}:type" "$(_cdata_get "${r_name}:type")"
+    _cdata_set "${_expanded_name}:boot" "$(_cdata_get "${r_name}:boot")"
+    _cdata_set "${_expanded_name}:labels" "$(_cdata_get "${r_name}:labels")"
+    _cdata_set "${_expanded_name}:capacity" "$(_cdata_get "${r_name}:capacity")"
+    _cdata_set "${_expanded_name}:repos" "$_repo"
+    _cdata_set "${_expanded_name}:data_path" "${_orig_path%/}-${_repo}"
+    EXPANDED_NAMES+=("$_expanded_name")
+  done
+  # Remove the original multi-repo section
+  ini_remove_section "$RUNNERS_CONF" "$r_name"
+done
+COLLECTED_NAMES=("${EXPANDED_NAMES[@]}")
+
 # ===========================================================================
 # Summary — green border box + table
 # ===========================================================================