flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

Could not find a resource with id '<resourceName>' in deploy

Error message

Could not find a resource with id '<resourceName>' in deployment '<deploymentId>'.

What it means

Thrown by the app-engine REST layer when a GET on /app-repository/deployments/{deploymentId}/resources/{resourceName} requests a resource whose name (extracted from the request path) is not present in the deployment's resource list. The deployment itself exists, but it contains no artifact with that name, so no stream can be served.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-app-engine-rest/src/main/java/org/flowable/app/rest/service/api/repository/AppDeploymentResourceResource.java:97

        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. List resources first via GET .../app-deployments/{deploymentId}/resources
  2. Use the exact resource name returned there
  3. Verify the resource belongs to this deployment, not another one

Example fix

// before
GET /app-repository/app-deployments/123/resources/processes/my-process.bpmn20.xml
// after
GET /app-repository/app-deployments/123/resources  # returns app.cmmn.json etc.
GET /app-repository/app-deployments/123/resources/app.cmmn.json
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

List<String> resources = repositoryService.getDeploymentResourceNames(deploymentId);
if (!resources.contains(resourceName)) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown resource " + resourceName); }

Try / catch

try { ... } catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) { return ResponseEntity.status(404).body("Resource not in deployment"); }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: GET /app-repository/app-deployments/{deploymentId}/resources/{resourceName} with a name not in that deployment's resource set.

Common situations: Requesting a process definition resource from an app deployment, wrong casing, names altered by URL decoding (e.g. %20 vs space).

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/f2a961da2a3a31a7. Report an issue: GitHub.