Bamboo "failed because no agent could be found" in CI

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

Bamboo waited for a capable agent, hit the queue timeout, and failed the build rather than leaving it queued. The message names that no eligible agent was found for the job requirements.

What this error means

The build result shows "This build failed because no agent could be found to run it" (or "could not be built because no agent was capable"), often after a long queue wait.

This build failed because no agent could be found to run it.
Ensure that an agent with the required capabilities is online and enabled.

Common causes

The queue timeout elapsed with no capable agent

No online agent satisfied the job requirements before Bamboo's wait limit, so the scheduler failed the build instead of holding it.

A capability was removed while the build was queued

An agent that would have matched was reconfigured or taken offline, so the requirement no longer resolved to any agent.

How to fix it

Restore a capable, online agent

1. Open the failed build and read which requirement went unmet.
2. Enable or restart an agent that defines the matching capability.
3. Re-run the build once a capable agent is available.

# Agents > <agent> > enable, then Capabilities > confirm the required key exists

Reduce over-specific requirements

Drop requirements the job does not really need (for example an exact JDK point release) so more agents qualify and the build schedules.

How to prevent it

• Keep spare capacity for each capability profile so one outage does not fail builds.
• Prefer requirement keys that match several agents over hyper-specific ones.
• Monitor agent enablement so capabilities do not silently disappear.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation