flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

Could not find an execution with id

Error message

Could not find an execution with id '${executionId}'.

What it means

FlowableObjectNotFoundException thrown when no execution exists with the given id. The REST helper resolves the executionId path variable via runtimeService.createExecutionQuery().executionId(id).singleResult(); null triggers a 404 with Execution.class as the missing type.

Solutions

1. Verify the id exists: GET /runtime/process-instances/{processInstanceId} and use one of its executions' ids.
2. Remember executions disappear when the process completes — for history use /history/historic-process-instances instead.
3. Check you are pointing at the correct Flowable database/tenant configuration.
4. Catch FlowableObjectNotFoundException (HTTP 404) client-side and treat it as 'process finished or unknown id'.

Example fix

// before
GET /runtime/executions/definitely-not-an-execution
// after
const inst = await fetch(`/runtime/process-instances/${pid}`);
if (!inst.ok) throw new Error('process not found or completed');
const execId = (await inst.json()).id;
await fetch(`/runtime/executions/${execId}`);

const inst = await fetch(`/runtime/process-instances/${pid}`);
if (!inst.ok) throw new Error('Execution/process not found or already completed');

try { /* execution request */ } catch (e) {
  if (e.status === 404) { /* check process instance / history; treat as completed */ } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any endpoint delegating to getExecutionFromRequest (e.g. GET /runtime/executions/{executionId}, its variables/activities sub-resources) with an id of a never-created, completed, or deleted process execution.

Common situations: Process instance already ended (executions are removed on completion); using a processDefinitionId or taskId where an executionId is expected; stale bookmarked URLs; querying the wrong database/tenant.

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

• Batch part with id ' ' does not have a batch part document.
• Batch with id ' ' does not have a batch document.
• Cannot associate execution by id: no execution with id '
• Cannot find execution with id
• Cannot find process instance with id

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9c0faffa74efca10. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-rest/src/main/java/org/flowable/rest/service/api/runtime/process/ExecutionBaseResource.java:201

                    if (process) {
                        processInstanceQuery.processVariableValueNotEqualsIgnoreCase(variable.getName(), (String) actualValue);
                    } else {
                        processInstanceQuery.variableValueNotEqualsIgnoreCase(variable.getName(), (String) actualValue);
                    }
                } else {
                    throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Only string variable values are supported when ignoring casing, but was: " + actualValue.getClass().getName());
                }
                break;
            default:
                throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Unsupported variable query operation: " + variable.getVariableOperation());
            }
        }
    }

    protected Execution getExecutionFromRequest(String executionId) {
        Execution execution = runtimeService.createExecutionQuery().executionId(executionId).singleResult();
        if (execution == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find an execution with id '" + executionId + "'.", Execution.class);
        }
        
        if (restApiInterceptor != null) {
            restApiInterceptor.accessExecutionInfoById(execution);
        }
        
        return execution;
    }

    protected Map<String, Object> getVariablesToSet(List<RestVariable> restVariables) {
        Map<String, Object> variablesToSet = new HashMap<>();
        for (RestVariable var : restVariables) {
            if (var.getName() == null) {
                throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Variable name is required");
            }

            Object actualVariableValue = restResponseFactory.getVariableValue(var);

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