A GitLab Runner needs some basic information to start:

• The URL where it can find GitLab, which is called the coordinator URL.
• The special token that you can find in GitLab that's meant to register runner instances.
• A description that will later show up in the GitLab CI.
• Tags, which you can give to the runner to make it easier to find in GitLab CI.
• The type of executor (remember that there are many types, all of which were named in the Runner client architecture section).

This basic information can be provided to the runner in two ways: interactive and non-interactive. First, we will discuss the interactive way.