No published version of workflow definition with ID

Error message

No published version of workflow definition with ID {workflowDefinitionId} found.

What it means

Thrown by the ExecuteWorkflow activity (ExecuteWorkflowAsync) when IWorkflowDefinitionService.FindWorkflowGraphAsync returns null for the given WorkflowDefinitionId with VersionOptions.Published. ExecuteWorkflow runs a child workflow synchronously in-process, so it requires a published version to build the workflow graph; without one the execution cannot proceed.

Solutions

Publish the target workflow definition so a published version exists (Studio publish or IWorkflowDefinitionPublisher.PublishAsync).
Confirm the WorkflowDefinitionId input equals the ID of the published definition in the current environment/tenant.
If the workflow was retracted or superseded, publish a new version of it before executing the parent.
Programmatically verify availability before execution with workflowDefinitionService.FindWorkflowGraphAsync(id, VersionOptions.Published) and fail fast with a clear message.

Example fix

// before
var child = new ExecuteWorkflow { WorkflowDefinitionId = new("order-processing-draft-id") };

// after: guard and publish first
var graph = await workflowDefinitionService.FindWorkflowGraphAsync(id, VersionOptions.Published, ct);
if (graph == null) await workflowDefinitionPublisher.PublishAsync(draft);
var child = new ExecuteWorkflow { WorkflowDefinitionId = new(id) };

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

var graph = await workflowDefinitionService.FindWorkflowGraphAsync(workflowDefinitionId, VersionOptions.Published, ct);
if (graph is null)
    throw new InvalidOperationException($"Workflow definition '{workflowDefinitionId}' has no published version; cannot execute child workflow.");

Prevention

Publish child workflows before wiring parent ExecuteWorkflow activities to them.
Keep child workflow deployment and publication in sync with parent workflows across environments.
Resolve definitions by name with a published-version lookup at design time instead of hardcoding possibly stale IDs.
Avoid retracting published versions while parent workflows referencing them may still execute.

When it happens

Trigger: Executing an ExecuteWorkflow activity whose WorkflowDefinitionId input resolves to a definition that has no published version at that moment: target is still a draft, the only published version was retracted/superseded, the ID is wrong or belongs to a deleted/foreign-environment definition.

Common situations: Chaining workflows during development before publishing the child; renaming/recreating a workflow and referencing the old ID; a CI/CD deploy that ships the parent workflow but not the published child; multi-tenant setups where the definition exists in another tenant.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of elsa-workflows/elsa-core@fe9217bdfa (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d2b7d32c5e11eab1. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/modules/Elsa.Workflows.Runtime/Activities/ExecuteWorkflow.cs:87

        // Since the child workflow is still running, we need to wait for it to complete using a bookmark.
        var bookmarkOptions = new CreateBookmarkArgs
        {
            Callback = OnChildWorkflowCompletedAsync,
            Stimulus = new ExecuteWorkflowStimulus(result.WorkflowInstanceId),
            IncludeActivityInstanceId = false
        };
        context.CreateBookmark(bookmarkOptions);
    }

    private async ValueTask<ExecuteWorkflowResult> ExecuteWorkflowAsync(ActivityExecutionContext context, bool waitForCompletion)
    {
        var workflowDefinitionId = WorkflowDefinitionId.Get(context);
        var workflowDefinitionService = context.GetRequiredService<IWorkflowDefinitionService>();
        var workflowGraph = await workflowDefinitionService.FindWorkflowGraphAsync(workflowDefinitionId, VersionOptions.Published, context.CancellationToken);

        if (workflowGraph == null)
            throw new($"No published version of workflow definition with ID {workflowDefinitionId} found.");

        var parentInstanceId = context.WorkflowExecutionContext.Id;
        var input = Input.GetOrDefault(context) ?? new Dictionary<string, object>();
        var correlationId = CorrelationId.GetOrDefault(context);
        var workflowInvoker = context.GetRequiredService<IWorkflowInvoker>();
        var identityGenerator = context.GetRequiredService<IIdentityGenerator>();
        var properties = new Dictionary<string, object>
        {
            ["ParentInstanceId"] = parentInstanceId
        };

        // If we need to wait for the child workflow to complete, set the property. This will be used by the ResumeExecuteWorkflowActivity to resume the parent workflow.
        if (waitForCompletion)
            properties["WaitForCompletion"] = true;

        input["ParentInstanceId"] = parentInstanceId;

        var options = new RunWorkflowOptions

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