conductor-oss/conductor · error · IllegalArgumentException

markdown content must not be null

Error message

markdown content must not be null

What it means

Thrown by MarkdownToPdfConverter.convert when request.getMarkdown() is null. The converter requires non-null markdown text as input; a null markdown (as opposed to empty) is treated as a programmer/contract error and rejected before any parsing. Note empty string is allowed through (parseMarkdown handles it).

Solutions

1. Ensure the caller always sets markdown on the request before calling convert().
2. Validate at the boundary: if markdown is null, either default to empty string or reject with a clearer domain error upstream.
3. Trace where the request is constructed and confirm the markdown source is non-null.

Example fix

// before
MarkdownToPdfRequest req = new MarkdownToPdfRequest();
// req.setMarkdown omitted -> null
byte[] pdf = converter.convert(req);
// after
MarkdownToPdfRequest req = new MarkdownToPdfRequest();
String md = sourceMarkdown;
req.setMarkdown(md == null ? "" : md);
byte[] pdf = converter.convert(req);

// Validate before calling convert.
if (request == null || request.getMarkdown() == null) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("MarkdownToPdfRequest.markdown must be set");
}
converter.convert(request);

When it happens

Trigger: Calling convert() with a MarkdownToPdfRequest whose markdown field was never set (null), e.g. when building the request from a workflow variable that was absent, a JSON deserialize that omitted the field, or a code path that forgot to populate it.

Common situations: Workflow task input mapped to markdown is missing/empty; request object built with a builder that left markdown unset; upstream producer sent a payload without the markdown field.

Related errors

• GET_AGENT_CARD requires 'agentUrl'
• markdown input is required for GENERATE_PDF task
• priority MUST be between 0 and 99 (inclusive)
• Start request is required
• A2A agent-card discovery requires agentType 'a2a'

AI-assisted analysis of conductor-oss/conductor@cf7c3e4a8a (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/699bdf449b78f6dc. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at ai/src/main/java/org/conductoross/conductor/ai/pdf/MarkdownToPdfConverter.java:62

@Conditional(AIIntegrationEnabledCondition.class)
@Slf4j
public class MarkdownToPdfConverter {

    private final PdfImageResolver imageResolver;

    public MarkdownToPdfConverter(PdfImageResolver imageResolver) {
        this.imageResolver = imageResolver;
    }

    /**
     * Converts markdown text to a PDF byte array.
     *
     * @param request the conversion request containing markdown and layout options
     * @return the generated PDF as a byte array
     */
    public byte[] convert(MarkdownToPdfRequest request) {
        if (request.getMarkdown() == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("markdown content must not be null");
        }

        // Step 1: Parse markdown to AST
        Document markdownAst = parseMarkdown(request.getMarkdown());

        // Step 2: Create PDF document
        try (PDDocument document = new PDDocument()) {
            // Step 3: Configure page size
            PDRectangle pageSize = resolvePageSize(request.getPageSize());

            // Step 4: Set PDF metadata
            setMetadata(document, request.getPdfMetadata());

            // Step 5: Create render context
            boolean compact = "compact".equalsIgnoreCase(request.getTheme());
            PdfRenderContext ctx =
                    new PdfRenderContext(
                            document,

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