You created a runner, GitLab listed it, and next to it sits a grey warning: This runner has never contacted this instance. Your pipeline sits pending, and nothing in the UI tells you why. The good news is that this message is far more specific than it looks.
Source: [Dev.to](https://dev.to/sepcy/gitlab-runner-has-never-contacted-this-instance-every-cause-and-fix-ne1)