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

FlowableObjectNotFoundException thrown by getDeploymentResource when no deployment with the given id exists. It is a plain 404-style signal that the deploymentId path variable matches nothing in the repository.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-app-engine-rest/src/main/java/org/flowable/app/rest/service/api/repository/AppDeploymentResourceResource.java:80

     * @ApiImplicitParam(name = "resourceId", dataType = "string", value =
     * "The id of the resource to get. Make sure you URL-encode the resourceId in case it contains forward slashes. Eg: use folder%2FoneApp.app instead of folder/oneApp.app."
     * , paramType = "path") })
     */
    @ApiResponses(value = {
            @ApiResponse(code = 200, message = "Indicates both deployment and resource have been found and the resource has been returned."),
            @ApiResponse(code = 404, message = "Indicates the requested deployment was not found or there is no resource with the given id present in the deployment. The status-description contains additional information.")
    })
    @GetMapping(value = "/app-repository/deployments/{deploymentId}/resources/**", produces = "application/json")
    public AppDeploymentResourceResponse getDeploymentResource(@ApiParam(name = "deploymentId") @PathVariable("deploymentId") String deploymentId, HttpServletRequest request) {
        // The ** is needed because the name of the resource can actually contain forward slashes.
        // For example org/flowable/oneApp.app. The number of forward slashes is unknown.
        // Using ** means that everything should get matched.
        // See also https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31421061/how-to-handle-requests-that-includes-forward-slashes/42403361#42403361

        // Check if deployment exists
        AppDeployment deployment = repositoryService.createDeploymentQuery().deploymentId(deploymentId).singleResult();
        if (deployment == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find a deployment with id '" + deploymentId + "'.");
        }
        
        if (restApiInterceptor != null) {
            restApiInterceptor.accessDeploymentById(deployment);
        }

        String pathInfo = request.getPathInfo();
        String resourceName = pathInfo.replace("/app-repository/deployments/" + deploymentId + "/resources/", "");

        List<String> resourceList = repositoryService.getDeploymentResourceNames(deploymentId);

        if (resourceList.contains(resourceName)) {
            // Build resource representation
            return restResponseFactory.createDeploymentResourceResponse(deploymentId, resourceName, contentTypeResolver.resolveContentType(resourceName));
        } else {
            // Resource not found in deployment
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find a resource with id '" + resourceName + "' in deployment '" + deploymentId + "'.");
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

  1. Query GET /app-repository/app-deployments to obtain a valid deployment id
  2. Confirm you are querying the app-engine REST endpoints, not the generic process repository API
  3. Re-deploy the application if the deployment is gone

Example fix

// before
GET /app-repository/app-deployments/deploy-x/resources
// after
curl /app-repository/app-deployments | jq '.data[0].id'
GET /app-repository/app-deployments/<thatId>/resources
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

AppDeployment d = appRepositoryService.createDeploymentQuery().deploymentId(deploymentId).singleResult();
if (d == null) { throw new EntityNotFoundException("Deployment " + deploymentId + " does not exist"); }

Try / catch

try { ... } catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) { return ResponseEntity.status(404).body("Deployment not found: " + deploymentId); }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: GET /app-repository/app-deployments/{deploymentId}/resources (list) or .../{resourceName} where deploymentId is unknown, deleted, or from another engine's table.

Common situations: Hard-coded ids from another environment, mixing process-engine and app-engine deployments, deployment purged by cleanup jobs.

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 flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/79f90b234cd42bd1. Report an issue: GitHub.