What causes "Cannot archive task: {} of workflow: {} with non-terminal status: {}" in conductor-oss/conductor?

Ensure all tasks reach a terminal status before archiving the workflow (the cancelNonTerminalTasks step normally handles this).

conductor-oss/conductor · error · IllegalArgumentException

Cannot archive task: {} of workflow: {} with non-terminal st

Error message

Cannot archive task: {} of workflow: {} with non-terminal status: {}

What it means

Thrown by removeTaskIndex when archiveTask=true but the task status is non-terminal AND not SCHEDULED. SCHEDULED tasks are explicitly skipped (logged) because they may not have been canceled yet; every other non-terminal status (IN_PROGRESS, etc.) raises this IllegalArgumentException. Archiving a non-terminal task would persist an in-flight task as its final state.

Source

Thrown at core/src/main/java/com/netflix/conductor/core/dal/ExecutionDAOFacade.java:618

        if (archiveTask) {
            if (task.getStatus().isTerminal()) {
                // Only allow archival if task is in terminal state
                // DO NOT archive async, since if archival errors out, task data will be lost
                indexDAO.updateTask(
                        workflow.getWorkflowId(),
                        task.getTaskId(),
                        new String[] {ARCHIVED_FIELD},
                        new Object[] {true});
            } else if (task.getStatus() == TaskModel.Status.SCHEDULED) {
                // SCHEDULED tasks may not have been canceled yet (e.g. if cancelNonTerminalTasks
                // failed for this task). Skip archival to allow the rest of the workflow removal
                // to proceed rather than blocking on a task that was never started.
                LOGGER.warn(
                        "Skipping archival of task: {} of workflow: {} with SCHEDULED status",
                        task.getTaskId(),
                        workflow.getWorkflowId());
            } else {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                        "Cannot archive task: "
                                + task.getTaskId()
                                + " of workflow: "
                                + workflow.getWorkflowId()
                                + " with non-terminal status: "
                                + task.getStatus());
            }
        } else {
            // Not archiving, remove task from index
            indexDAO.asyncRemoveTask(workflow.getWorkflowId(), task.getTaskId());
        }
    }

    public void extendLease(TaskModel taskModel) {
        taskModel.setUpdateTime(System.currentTimeMillis());
        executionDAO.updateTask(taskModel);
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to cf7c3e4a8a)

Solutions

Ensure all tasks reach a terminal status before archiving the workflow (the cancelNonTerminalTasks step normally handles this).
If a task is genuinely stuck, terminate it or force the workflow to a terminal state before removal.
If archival is not required, remove with archiveWorkflow=false so tasks are deleted from the index rather than archived.
Investigate why cancelNonTerminalTasks did not bring the offending task to terminal status.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Ensure task is terminal (or SCHEDULED) before archiving
TaskModel.Status s = task.getStatus();
if (!s.isTerminal() && s != TaskModel.Status.SCHEDULED) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
        "Cannot archive task " + task.getTaskId()
            + " with non-terminal status " + s);
}

Try / catch

try {
    facade.removeWorkflow(id, true);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    // a task is non-terminal and not SCHEDULED -> cancel/terminate tasks first
}

Prevention

Run cancelNonTerminalTasks to completion before archiving a workflow.
If a task cannot reach terminal status, terminate the workflow rather than archiving.
Use archive=false when preservation of in-flight tasks is not required.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling workflow removal with archival on a workflow that contains a task still IN_PROGRESS (or any non-terminal, non-SCHEDULED status). The guard is the final else after checking terminal status and the SCHEDULED special case.

Common situations: A workflow is being archived while one of its tasks is still actively executing (e.g. an async/system task that has not completed). A stuck task that never reached terminal status. Archival invoked during an in-flight cancellation that has not propagated to all tasks.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of conductor-oss/conductor@cf7c3e4a8a (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2a4d9dd0e503d584. Report an issue: GitHub.