Forgejo · Codeberg · Gitea · Actions runners · Checked October 28, 2026

Forgejo and Gitea Actions: "No matching online runner with label"

The job names a label in runs-on that no runner connected right now has. Forgejo and Gitea do not fail such a job: it stays queued until a runner with every label in its runs-on comes online, or until someone cancels it. Give a runner that label, start the runner that has it, or change runs-on to a label your runners have.

Where the message appears

The words are the same in both, with the labels in place of the placeholder:

No matching online runner with label: ubuntu-latest

Gitea (checked in 28.2.0, the latest release, of October 18, 2026): a red warning icon next to the run in the list of runs, with the message when you point at it. It shows while a job of the run waits and no online runner that is not disabled has every label of that job (actions.go, runs_list.tmpl). The page of the waiting job tells the three cases apart: "No runner is online to pick up this job." when no runner is online at all, this message when runners are online but none has the labels, and "Waiting for a matching runner to become available." when a runner with the labels is online but busy (view.go).
Forgejo: a red warning icon next to the workflow in the list of workflows on the left of the Actions tab, for the first value of its runs-on that no online runner has. Values that contain an expression (${{ }}) are skipped, so a job whose labels come from an expression waits without this warning (actions.go, list_inner.tmpl).

Through the API there is no error at all: the job is queued on Gitea and waiting on Forgejo, and stays so. Gitea also returns the labels the job asks for, as labels on the job (repo_actions.go).

How a runner is matched to a job

A runner takes a job only when it has every label of the job: runs-on: [self-hosted, linux] needs one runner with both (Gitea CanMatchLabels, Forgejo ItRunsOn).
Gitea compares labels without regard to case. Forgejo compares them exactly, so Ubuntu-latest and ubuntu-latest are two different labels there.
The label is the name before the colon. A runner configured with ubuntu-latest:docker://node:24 has the label ubuntu-latest; the rest says where its jobs run (Gitea, Forgejo).
Online means the runner was in touch with the server within the last minute (RunnerOfflineTime in both). A stopped runner, or one that cannot reach the server, does not count.
The runners that count are those of the repository, of its owner (user or organization) and of the whole server. A runner registered for another repository or organization does not take the job (Forgejo registration).

Get the job running

See which runners there are, with their labels and status: in the repository, Settings, Actions, Runners (/{owner}/{repository}/settings/actions/runners). The list includes the runners of the owner and of the server. Organizations have the same page under /org/{org}/settings/actions/runners, your account under /user/settings/actions/runners, server administrators under /admin/actions/runners. Each runner shows Idle, Active or Offline, and its labels (the same pages in Gitea).
The label is there, but the runner is Offline: start the runner again (on Gitea, gitea-runner daemon) and check that it can reach the server. The waiting job is taken as soon as the runner asks for work; nothing needs to be run again.
No runner has the label: add it to a runner, or change runs-on. A workflow written for GitHub usually says runs-on: ubuntu-latest, which needs a runner with a label of that name; Forgejo suggests a label such as ubuntu-latest:docker://node:lts to mimic GitHub runners. On Gitea, set runner.labels in the configuration file (or --labels) and restart the runner, which reports its labels at startup. On Forgejo, labels are listed under runner: labels: in the configuration file of the runner.
On Codeberg: the runners Codeberg hosts have the labels codeberg-tiny, codeberg-small and codeberg-medium (each also with -lazy), and are offered in a limited way; runs-on: ubuntu-latest waits unless you connect a runner of your own with that label (codeberg.org/actions/meta, Codeberg documentation).
After changing runs-on: the change applies to new runs. On Gitea a re-run copies the jobs as they were, labels included (rerun.go), so push a commit, or start the workflow by hand if it has workflow_dispatch, and cancel the run that is still waiting.

Forgejo and Gitea Actions in IntelliJ IDEA

Pipeline Inbox for Forgejo and Gitea, a plugin by Lesstep for JetBrains IDEs 2024.1 or later, shows the runs of your Forgejo and Gitea repositories with their jobs and logs. A job that waits for a runner is marked queued in the jobs of its run, and its log stays open and follows it, so the first lines appear as soon as a runner takes the job. Since version 1.0.1 it also shows the labels the waiting job asks for (its runs-on). The runs, jobs and logs are free; re-running, cancelling and starting workflows are Pro (US$1.50 a month, with a 30-day trial).

Get it on JetBrains Marketplace

Forgejo, Gitea and Codeberg are names of their respective owners; IntelliJ IDEA is a trademark of JetBrains s.r.o. This page is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Forgejo project, Codeberg e.V., the Gitea project or JetBrains.

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