What causes "Cannot migrate case(es), not enough information" in flowable/flowable-engine?

Set both the case definition key AND version (>=0) on the migration builder/command

flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableException

Cannot migrate case(es), not enough information

Error message

Cannot migrate case(es), not enough information

What it means

HistoricCaseInstanceMigrationCmd.execute() dispatches the migration in three modes: by case definition id, or by key plus version (>=0), or otherwise fails. This FlowableException is thrown in the else branch when none of those combinations identify a source case definition, meaning the command was constructed without enough identifying information.

Solutions

Set both the case definition key AND version (>=0) on the migration builder/command
Alternatively provide an explicit case definition id so the first dispatch branch is used
Log/inspect the builder state before execute() to confirm one of the valid identifier combinations is present

Example fix

// before
builder.migrate("myCaseDef"); // no version set -> version == -1
// after
builder.migrate("myCaseDef", 2); // key + version

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

boolean enough = caseDefinitionId != null || (caseDefinitionKey != null && caseDefinitionVersion >= 0); if (!enough) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Provide case definition id, or key plus version");

Try / catch

try { cmmnMigrationService.migrate(...); } catch (FlowableException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("not enough information")) { /* complete builder params and retry */ } }

Prevention

Always set key AND version together when not using a definition id
Inspect builder state before execute() (assert one valid identifier combo)
Use HistoricCaseInstanceMigrationBuilder instead of raw commands so defaults are enforced

When it happens

Trigger: Executing the migration command when caseDefinitionId is null AND (caseDefinitionKey is null OR caseDefinitionVersion < 0) — e.g. a key was set but version was left unset (stays -1), or only the tenant/document were provided.

Common situations: Builders where setToCaseDefinitionVersion() was never called so version remains -1; mixing migration modes and assuming the engine can default to the latest version; hand-constructed commands missing the id field.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9b6eae233567097b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/cmd/HistoricCaseInstanceMigrationCmd.java:96

        this.caseDefinitionVersion = caseDefinitionVersion;
        this.caseDefinitionTenantId = caseDefinitionTenantId;
        this.historicCaseInstanceMigrationDocument = historicCaseInstanceMigrationDocument;
        this.cmmnEngineConfiguration = cmmnEngineConfiguration;
    }

    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        CaseInstanceMigrationManager migrationManager = cmmnEngineConfiguration.getCaseInstanceMigrationManager();

        if (caseInstanceId != null) {
            migrationManager.migrateHistoricCaseInstance(caseInstanceId, historicCaseInstanceMigrationDocument, commandContext);
        } else if (caseDefinitionId != null) {
            migrationManager.migrateHistoricCaseInstancesOfCaseDefinition(caseDefinitionId, historicCaseInstanceMigrationDocument, commandContext);
        } else if (caseDefinitionKey != null && caseDefinitionVersion >= 0) {
            migrationManager.migrateHistoricCaseInstancesOfCaseDefinition(caseDefinitionKey, caseDefinitionVersion, 
                    caseDefinitionTenantId, historicCaseInstanceMigrationDocument, commandContext);
        } else {
            throw new FlowableException("Cannot migrate case(es), not enough information");
        }
        return null;
    }
}

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