GitLab CE Ships Without a Runner: Why Your CI/CD Pipelines Stay Pending
GitLab Community Edition does not include GitLab Runner by default, meaning pipelines will remain in a pending state indefinitely after installation without throwing any errors. The application and its runner are two separate components, but many users assume they are bundled together, likely because GitLab.com provides shared runners automatically. Administrators can confirm the absence of runners by visiting Admin Area → CI/CD → Runners or running a command-line check on the GitLab server. To execute pipelines, users must separately install and register a runner — options include self-hosting on a spare machine, deploying via Kubernetes, or renting runners from a third-party provider. Each approach carries trade-offs around cost, maintenance, and data residency that teams should evaluate based on their infrastructure and compliance requirements.
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