crewAIInc/crewAI · error · Exception

An error occurred while running the flow with trigger: {e}

Error message

An error occurred while running the flow with trigger: {e}

What it means

Catch-all wrapper in the flow template's run_with_trigger(). After payload validation, content_flow.kickoff({'crewai_trigger_payload': payload}) executes; any exception in the flow's start listener, crew steps, or state handling is re-raised as a generic Exception with 'An error occurred while running the flow with trigger: {e}'.

Source

Thrown at lib/cli/src/crewai_cli/templates/flow/main.py:85

    """
    import json
    import sys

    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        raise Exception("No trigger payload provided. Please provide JSON payload as argument.")

    try:
        trigger_payload = json.loads(sys.argv[1])
    except json.JSONDecodeError:
        raise Exception("Invalid JSON payload provided as argument")

    content_flow = ContentFlow()

    try:
        result = content_flow.kickoff({"crewai_trigger_payload": trigger_payload})
        return result
    except Exception as e:
        raise Exception(f"An error occurred while running the flow with trigger: {e}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    kickoff()

View on GitHub (pinned to 754d7323be)

Solutions

1. Inspect the inner exception after the colon for the real error (KeyError on payload fields, auth failures).
2. Reproduce locally with the exact payload: `uv run run_with_trigger '<payload>'`.
3. Make the start step defensive: read trigger fields via .get() with defaults instead of direct dict access.
4. Ensure API keys/env are configured where the flow runs.

Example fix

# before
except Exception as e:
    raise Exception(f"An error occurred while running the flow with trigger: {e}")

# after
except Exception:
    import traceback
    traceback.print_exc()
    raise

import os
assert os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"), "API key missing for flow kickoff"

def payload_has(payload: dict, key: str) -> bool:
    return isinstance(payload, dict) and key in payload

try:
    result = content_flow.kickoff({"crewai_trigger_payload": payload})
except Exception:
    logging.exception("flow trigger kickoff failed")
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Valid JSON payload but the flow fails during kickoff: a start step expecting fields missing from the payload, LLM auth errors, or an exception in downstream flow steps.

Common situations: Flow works in normal kickoff but the trigger payload shape differs from what start() reads from state; deployment environment missing API keys; schema drift between the trigger source and flow expectations.

Related errors

• An error occurred while running the crew with trigger: {e}
• No trigger payload provided. Please provide JSON payload as
• Invalid JSON payload provided as argument
• An error occurred while running the crew: {e}
• No trigger payload provided. Please provide JSON payload as

AI-assisted analysis of crewAIInc/crewAI@754d7323be (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c47480205b4bc44a. Report an issue: GitHub.