flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

Could not find a deployment with id '" + deploymentId + "'.

Error message

Could not find a deployment with id '" + deploymentId + "'.

What it means

Flowable throws FlowableObjectNotFoundException when deleting a deployment whose id does not exist in ACT_RE_DEPLOYMENT. repositoryService.deleteDeployment(deploymentId) (cascade or not) requires an existing deployment row; a null lookup result triggers this error before any removal or Flowable 5 delegation happens.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/engine/impl/persistence/deploy/DeploymentManager.java:184

        }

        return appResourceObject;
    }

    public AppModel getAppResourceModel(String deploymentId) {
        Object appResourceObject = getAppResourceObject(deploymentId);
        if (!(appResourceObject instanceof AppModel)) {
            throw new FlowableException("App resource is not of type AppModel");
        }

        return (AppModel) appResourceObject;
    }

    public void removeDeployment(String deploymentId, boolean cascade) {

        DeploymentEntity deployment = deploymentEntityManager.findById(deploymentId);
        if (deployment == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find a deployment with id '" + deploymentId + "'.", DeploymentEntity.class);
        }

        if (Flowable5Util.isFlowable5Deployment(deployment, processEngineConfiguration)) {
            processEngineConfiguration.getFlowable5CompatibilityHandler().deleteDeployment(deploymentId, cascade);
            return;
        }

        for (EngineDeployer deployer : deployers) {
            deployer.undeploy(deployment, cascade);
        }

        // Remove any process definition from the cache
        List<ProcessDefinition> processDefinitions = new ProcessDefinitionQueryImpl().deploymentId(deploymentId).list();
        ProcessEngineConfigurationImpl processEngineConfiguration = CommandContextUtil.getProcessEngineConfiguration();
        FlowableEventDispatcher eventDispatcher = processEngineConfiguration.getEventDispatcher();

        for (ProcessDefinition processDefinition : processDefinitions) {

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

  1. Verify existence first: repositoryService.createDeploymentQuery().deploymentId(id).singleResult()
  2. Make deletion idempotent in cleanup code by skipping when the query returns null
  3. Check you are connected to the right database where the deployment lives

Example fix

// before
repositoryService.deleteDeployment(deploymentId, true);
// after
if (repositoryService.createDeploymentQuery().deploymentId(deploymentId).singleResult() != null) {
    repositoryService.deleteDeployment(deploymentId, true);
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (repositoryService.createDeploymentQuery().deploymentId(deploymentId).singleResult() != null) {
    repositoryService.deleteDeployment(deploymentId, true);
}

Try / catch

try {
    repositoryService.deleteDeployment(deploymentId, true);
} catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
    // already deleted — treat as idempotent success
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: repositoryService.deleteDeployment("dep-1") where dep-1 was already deleted, never existed, or belongs to a different database/schema; re-running cleanup scripts that delete twice.

Common situations: Repeated teardown in tests deleting the same deployment; ids copied from another environment; deployments cleaned by another process while a job still references them.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/efea6c9d574d4bc0. Report an issue: GitHub.