flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

caseInstanceId is null

Error message

caseInstanceId is null

What it means

Thrown by SetVariableAsyncCmd.execute when the caseInstanceId passed to the async set-variable command is null. Flowable validates required arguments up front and rejects null ids with FlowableIllegalArgumentException rather than doing a DB lookup.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/cmd/SetVariableAsyncCmd.java:38

import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.interceptor.Command;
import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.interceptor.CommandContext;

public class SetVariableAsyncCmd extends AbstractSetVariableAsyncCmd implements Command<Void> {
    
    protected String caseInstanceId;
    protected String variableName;
    protected Object variableValue;
    
    public SetVariableAsyncCmd(String caseInstanceId, String variableName, Object variableValue) {
        this.caseInstanceId = caseInstanceId;
        this.variableName = variableName;
        this.variableValue = variableValue;
    }
    
    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        if (caseInstanceId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("caseInstanceId is null");
        }
        if (variableName == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("variable name is null");
        }
     
        CmmnEngineConfiguration cmmnEngineConfiguration = CommandContextUtil.getCmmnEngineConfiguration(commandContext);
        CaseInstanceEntity caseInstanceEntity = cmmnEngineConfiguration.getCaseInstanceEntityManager().findById(caseInstanceId);
        if (caseInstanceEntity == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("No case instance found for id " + caseInstanceId, CaseInstanceEntity.class);
        }
        
        addVariable(false, caseInstanceId, null, variableName, variableValue, caseInstanceEntity.getTenantId(), 
                cmmnEngineConfiguration.getVariableServiceConfiguration().getVariableService());
        createSetAsyncVariablesJob(caseInstanceEntity, cmmnEngineConfiguration);
        
        return null;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Ensure caseInstanceId is populated before calling setVariableAsync
2. Validate the id string is non-null/non-empty at the call site
3. Trace where the id comes from; fix the upstream query that returned null

Example fix

// before
cmmnRuntimeService.setVariableAsync(caseInstanceId, "status", "done"); // caseInstanceId may be null
// after
Objects.requireNonNull(caseInstanceId, "caseInstanceId must not be null");
cmmnRuntimeService.setVariableAsync(caseInstanceId, "status", "done");

if (caseInstanceId == null || caseInstanceId.trim().isEmpty()) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("caseInstanceId must not be null or empty");
}

boolean hasCaseInstanceId(String id) { return id != null && !id.trim().isEmpty(); }

try {
    cmmnRuntimeService.setVariableAsync(caseInstanceId, name, value);
} catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    log.error("Invalid argument for setVariableAsync: {}", e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling setVariableAsync (or building SetVariableAsyncCmd) without setting caseInstanceId, e.g. from code where the case instance id variable is null or a lookup returned null and wasn't checked.

Common situations: A previous query returned null and its result was passed straight through, builder fields forgotten, or an API/REST layer dropped the parameter.

Related errors

• variable name is null
• caseInstanceId is null
• variable name is null
• caseInstanceId is null
• variables is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bd83fd30f4d3ff47. Report an issue: GitHub.