GitLab CI job stuck

April 30, 2026 · View on GitHub

Playbook ID: gitlab-no-runner Category: ci Severity: high Tags: gitlab, runner, stuck, ci

What this failure means

GitLab CI could not find an available runner that matches the job's tag requirements or the project has no registered runners at all.

Common log signals

This job is stuck because the project doesn't have any runners
This job is stuck because you don't have any active runners
no runners available
job is stuck
runner not found
waiting for a runner

Diagnosis

GitLab CI could not find an available runner that matches the job's tag requirements or the project has no registered runners at all.

Fix steps

  1. Check runner availability: Settings > CI/CD > Runners.
  2. Ensure at least one runner is online and not paused.
  3. If the job requires specific tags, confirm at least one runner has those tags.
  4. For group or instance runners, verify they are enabled for this project.
  5. Start a new runner with gitlab-runner register if none are available.

Validation

  • Re-run the failing workflow step.
  • Confirm the original failure signature for GitLab CI job stuck — no matching runner is gone.

Likely files to inspect

  • .gitlab-ci.yml

Run Faultline

faultline analyze build.log
faultline explain gitlab-no-runner
faultline workflow build.log --json --mode agent

Search phrases this page answers

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  • Ci: gitlab ci job stuck — no matching runner
  • This job is stuck because the project doesn't have any runners
  • GitHub Actions gitlab ci job stuck — no matching runner
  • faultline explain gitlab-no-runner

Generated from playbooks/bundled/log/ci/gitlab-no-runner.yaml. Do not edit directly — run make docs-generate.