FlowiseAI/Flowise · error · Error

Invalid Flow State

Error message

Invalid Flow State

What it means

Start_Agentflow.run() parses the node's `startState` input into an array of {key,value} entries. When the input is a string, JSON.parse is attempted; if parsing throws, the node reports 'Invalid Flow State' rather than exposing the parse error. A valid-but-non-array result is not caught here (it would fail later at the for-loop).

Source

Thrown at packages/components/nodes/agentflow/Start/Start.ts:777

                type: 'boolean',
                description: 'Persist the state in the same session',
                optional: true
            }
        ]
    }

    async run(nodeData: INodeData, input: string | Record<string, any>, options: ICommonObject): Promise<any> {
        const _flowState = nodeData.inputs?.startState as string
        const startInputType = nodeData.inputs?.startInputType as string
        const startEphemeralMemory = nodeData.inputs?.startEphemeralMemory as boolean
        const startPersistState = nodeData.inputs?.startPersistState as boolean

        let flowStateArray = []
        if (_flowState) {
            try {
                flowStateArray = typeof _flowState === 'string' ? JSON.parse(_flowState) : _flowState
            } catch (error) {
                throw new Error('Invalid Flow State')
            }
        }

        let flowState: Record<string, any> = {}
        for (const state of flowStateArray) {
            flowState[state.key] = state.value
        }

        const runtimeState = options.agentflowRuntime?.state as ICommonObject
        if (startPersistState === true && runtimeState && Object.keys(runtimeState).length) {
            for (const state in runtimeState) {
                flowState[state] = runtimeState[state]
            }
        }

        const inputData: ICommonObject = {}
        const outputData: ICommonObject = {}

View on GitHub (pinned to abe4a8601a)

Solutions

1. Open the Start node and re-enter State as valid JSON: `[{"key":"userId","value":"123"}]`.
2. Paste the current value into a JSON linter to find the syntax error.
3. If binding to a variable, ensure it produces a JSON string or pass an object (non-string is used directly without parsing).
4. Patch the catch to include the parse error message: `throw new Error('Invalid Flow State: ' + (error as Error).message)`.

Example fix

// before
            } catch (error) {
                throw new Error('Invalid Flow State')
            }
// after
            } catch (error) {
                throw new Error(`Invalid Flow State: ${(error as Error).message}. Input: ${typeof _flowState === 'string' ? _flowState.slice(0, 120) : '<object>'}`)
            }

const s = nodeData.inputs?.startState
if (typeof s === 'string' && s.trim() !== '') {
  const parsed = JSON.parse(s) // throws here with a clear message if invalid
  if (!Array.isArray(parsed)) throw new Error('startState must be a JSON array of {key,value}')
}

const isStateArray = (v: unknown): v is { key: string; value: unknown }[] =>
  Array.isArray(v) && v.every((i) => i && typeof i.key === 'string')

try {
  await startNode.run(nodeData, input, options)
} catch (e) {
  if ((e as Error).message === 'Invalid Flow State') {
    // re-enter State as valid JSON [{"key":..,"value":..}]
  }
  throw e
}

When it happens

Trigger: startState is a hand-edited string with a syntax error (trailing comma, unquoted key, single quotes), truncated JSON from a variable, or a string that is not JSON at all (e.g. `color=red`).

Common situations: User types state inline as `key=value` instead of JSON; copy-paste introduces smart quotes; a templating/variable step injects an unescaped value breaking the JSON; the field is bound to a runtime variable that returns `undefined` stringified poorly.

Related errors

• Invalid input array
• Model is required
• Tool not selected
• Invalid agentflow ID: must be a valid UUID
• Invalid base URL: must be a valid URL

AI-assisted analysis of FlowiseAI/Flowise@abe4a8601a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4d40e0a3cd91670e. Report an issue: GitHub.