flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

Could not find a event subscription with id '${eventSubscrip

Error message

Could not find a event subscription with id '${eventSubscriptionId}'.

What it means

FlowableObjectNotFoundException thrown when querying an event subscription by id that does not exist. runtimeService.createEventSubscriptionQuery().id(id) returned no result, so the REST endpoint reports a 404 with EventSubscription.class as the missing type.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-rest/src/main/java/org/flowable/rest/service/api/runtime/process/EventSubscriptionResource.java:59

    protected RestResponseFactory restResponseFactory;

    @Autowired
    protected RuntimeService runtimeService;
    
    @Autowired(required=false)
    protected BpmnRestApiInterceptor restApiInterceptor;

    @ApiOperation(value = "Get a single event subscription", tags = { "Event subscriptions" })
    @ApiResponses(value = {
            @ApiResponse(code = 200, message = "Indicates the event subscription exists and is returned."),
            @ApiResponse(code = 404, message = "Indicates the requested event subscription does not exist.")
    })
    @GetMapping(value = "/runtime/event-subscriptions/{eventSubscriptionId}", produces = "application/json")
    public EventSubscriptionResponse getEventSubscription(@ApiParam(name = "eventSubscriptionId") @PathVariable String eventSubscriptionId) {
        EventSubscription eventSubscription = runtimeService.createEventSubscriptionQuery().id(eventSubscriptionId).singleResult();

        if (eventSubscription == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find a event subscription with id '" + eventSubscriptionId + "'.", EventSubscription.class);
        }
        
        if (restApiInterceptor != null) {
            restApiInterceptor.accessEventSubscriptionById(eventSubscription);
        }

        return restResponseFactory.createEventSubscriptionResponse(eventSubscription);
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

Verify the id via GET /runtime/event-subscriptions filtered by processInstanceId or using the management/API listing before fetching by id.
Re-fetch the id from the current process state — the subscription may have been consumed and removed.
Check you are connected to the same database/tenant where the process instance runs.
Catch FlowableObjectNotFoundException (HTTP 404) and treat as absent resource rather than retrying.

Example fix

// before
GET /runtime/event-subscriptions/1234-not-a-subscription-id
// after
String subId = eventSubscriptions.stream()
    .filter(s -> s.getProcessInstanceId().equals(pid)).findFirst()
    .map(EventSubscriptionResponse::getId).orElse(null);
if (subId != null) GET /runtime/event-subscriptions/ + subId;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

const subs = await fetch(`/runtime/event-subscriptions?processInstanceId=${pid}`).then(r => r.json());
if (!subs.data.some(s => s.id === eventSubscriptionId)) throw new Error(`Subscription ${eventSubscriptionId} no longer exists`);

Try / catch

try { /* get event subscription */ } catch (e) {
  if (e.status === 404) { /* treat as consumed/deleted, re-derive id */ } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Treat event-subscription ids as ephemeral — they vanish when the event fires
Re-query subscriptions by processInstanceId instead of caching ids
Verify you are on the same database/tenant as the process instance

When it happens

Trigger: GET /runtime/event-subscriptions/{eventSubscriptionId} with an id that was never created, was already deleted, or is malformed.

Common situations: Using a process-instance or execution id instead of an event-subscription id; the subscription was consumed/cancelled (e.g. message received, signal fired, timer expired) between lookups; stale ids cached by the client; querying across a different database/tenant than where the subscription lives.

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/dc630a24934f19f2. Report an issue: GitHub.