Waiting for next available executor CI/CD Origin: Build & delivery Last updated 25 Oct 2026

Jenkins: Still waiting to schedule task — Waiting for next available executor / 'agent1' is offline

A Jenkins build is queued because no executor with the required label is free or the agent is offline.

Exact message you may see Waiting for next available executorStill waiting to schedule taskThere are no nodes with the labelis offline Jenkins agentWaiting for next available executor on
Seen on: Jenkins

Meaning

Check Manage Jenkins → Nodes. An agent may be offline (disk space, network, SSH/JNLP failure), have all executors busy, or not match the label in agent { label 'x' }. The queue message explains which. Bring the agent online or fix the label.

Common causes

  • Agent offline (crashed, network, disk space low, credentials)
  • Label in the Jenkinsfile matches no node
  • All executors busy
  • Node marked temporarily offline by a health check (low disk or swap)
  • Cloud agents not provisioning

⚡ Quick fix

  1. Open Manage Jenkins → Nodes and relaunch the agent
  2. Check the label spelling in agent { label '…' }
  3. Free disk space or raise executor count

Detailed fix by platform

Jenkins

  1. Hover the queue item for "because" text; node log is under Nodes → agent → Log

Code examples

Pin a label

groovy
pipeline {
  agent { label 'linux && docker' }
  stages { stage('Build') { steps { sh 'make' } } }
}

How to diagnose

  1. Node — Online?
  2. Label — Matches a node?
  3. Capacity — Executors free?

🔧 Still not fixed?

Many errors look alike. If the steps above didn’t solve it, one of these is probably what you’re facing:

Where this error sits

Origin: Build & delivery. Errors that are often confused with or caused by this one (click to open):

Container exceeded memory limit — Bitbucket Pipelines: Container 'Build' exceeded memory limit / Docker container exited with code 137 (CI/CD)Container exceeded me…Could not find credentials entry — Jenkins: ERROR: Could not find credentials entry with ID 'github-token' (CI/CD)Could not find creden…No such DSL method — Jenkins: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: No such DSL method 'dockerBuild' found among steps (CI/CD)No such DSL methodpermission denied /var/run/docker.sock — Jenkins: Got permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket at unix:///var/run/docker.sock (CI/CD)permission denied /va…Scripts not permitted to use method — Jenkins: org.jenkinsci.plugins.scriptsecurity.sandbox.RejectedAccessException: Scripts not permitted to use method java.lang.String toUpperCase (CI/CD)Scripts not permitted…This job is stuck because you don't have any active runners — GitLab CI: This job is stuck because you don't have any active runners online or available with any of these tags assigned to them (CI/CD)This job is stuck bec…Waiting for a runner to pick up this job — GitHub Actions: Waiting for a runner to pick up this job… (job stays queued — No runner matching the specified labels) (CI/CD)Waiting for a runner …WorkflowScript compilation error — Jenkins: WorkflowScript: 12: unexpected token: } @ line 12, column 5. 1 error (CI/CD)WorkflowScript compil…Waiting f…

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