flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

caseInstanceIds are null

Error message

caseInstanceIds are null

What it means

BulkTerminateCaseInstancesCmd.execute throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when the caseInstanceIds collection is null. The command builds a deduplicated Set of ids and plans a manual terminate operation per id on the agenda; a null collection is rejected before planning begins.

Source

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

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

/**
 * @author Christopher Welsch
 */
public class BulkTerminateCaseInstancesCmd implements Command<Void> {

    protected Collection<String> caseInstanceIds;

    public BulkTerminateCaseInstancesCmd(Collection<String> caseInstanceIds) {
        this.caseInstanceIds = caseInstanceIds;
    }

    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        if (caseInstanceIds == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("caseInstanceIds are null");
        }
        Set<String> instanceIdSet = new HashSet<>(caseInstanceIds);

        for (String instanceId : instanceIdSet) {
            CommandContextUtil.getAgenda(commandContext).planManualTerminateCaseInstanceOperation(instanceId);
        }
        return null;
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-null collection of case instance ids to bulkTerminateCaseInstances
2. Coalesce null to an empty list at the call site
3. Validate the id list before scheduling termination operations

Example fix

// before
runtimeService.bulkTerminateCaseInstances(idsToTerminate);
// after
runtimeService.bulkTerminateCaseInstances(idsToTerminate == null ? Collections.emptyList() : idsToTerminate);

if (idsToTerminate == null) idsToTerminate = Collections.emptyList();

boolean isNonNullCollection(Collection<?> c) { return c != null; }

try {
    cmmnRuntimeService.bulkTerminateCaseInstances(ids);
} catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    log.error("Bulk terminate rejected: {}", e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling cmmnRuntimeService.bulkTerminateCaseInstances(null) or constructing the command with a null id collection, e.g. from an upstream batch job whose id query returned null.

Common situations: Termination workflows driven by external events where the event payload lacks the ids field; unguarded method chaining producing null; reuse of a variable cleared earlier in the flow.

Related errors

• caseInstanceIds are null
• historic case instanceIds are null
• tasks are null
• caseInstanceId is null
• variable name is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b163965395232402. Report an issue: GitHub.