flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

decisionKey is null

Error message

decisionKey is null

What it means

ExecuteDecisionWithAuditTrailCmd executes a decision and records an audit trail, but first rejects a null decision key with FlowableIllegalArgumentException. Same guard as ExecuteDecisionCmd because the audit-trail variant resolves the definition by the same key.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-dmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/dmn/engine/impl/cmd/ExecuteDecisionWithAuditTrailCmd.java:59

    
    public ExecuteDecisionWithAuditTrailCmd(String decisionKey, Map<String, Object> variables) {
        super(decisionKey, variables);
    }

    public ExecuteDecisionWithAuditTrailCmd(String decisionKey, String parentDeploymentId, Map<String, Object> variables) {
        this(decisionKey, variables);
        executeDecisionContext.setParentDeploymentId(parentDeploymentId);
    }

    public ExecuteDecisionWithAuditTrailCmd(String decisionKey, String parentDeploymentId, Map<String, Object> variables, String tenantId) {
        this(decisionKey, parentDeploymentId, variables);
        executeDecisionContext.setTenantId(tenantId);
    }

    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        if (executeDecisionContext.getDecisionKey() == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("decisionKey is null");
        }

        DmnDefinition definition;
        try {
            definition = resolveDefinition();
        } catch (FlowableException e) {
            DecisionExecutionAuditContainer container = new DecisionExecutionAuditContainer();
            container.setFailedWithException(e);

            executeDecisionContext.setDecisionExecution(container);
            return null;
        }

        execute(commandContext, definition);

        return null;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Set a non-null decision key before executing: executeDecisionWithAuditTrail("myDecision", vars)
2. Guard the key at the call site and raise an application-specific error when null
3. Check any wrapper/utility class used by your project ensures the key is populated before delegating to the DMN engine

Example fix

// before
DmnDecisionTableAuditTrailInfo info = ds.executeDecisionWithAuditTrail(props.get("decisionKey"), vars);
// after
String key = (String) props.get("decisionKey");
if (key == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("decisionKey property missing");
DmnDecisionTableAuditTrailInfo info = ds.executeDecisionWithAuditTrail(key, vars);

if (key == null || key.isEmpty()) throw new IllegalArgumentException("decision key is required for audited execution");

try { decisionService.executeDecisionWithAuditTrail(key, vars); } catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) { if (e.getMessage().equals("decisionKey is null")) { log.error("Audited decision executed without key"); throw e; } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getDmnDecisionService().executeDecisionWithAuditTrail(key, vars) or building an audit-trail ExecuteDecisionContext with a null key (e.g. key variable unset, builder method not invoked).

Common situations: Audit-enabled deployments (DmnEngineConfiguration setting isEnableEvaluationsAuditTrail) where the key is provided dynamically and happens to be null; unit tests forgetting to set the key.

Related errors

• decisionKey is null
• decisionKey is null
• deploymentId is null
• resourceName is null
• deploymentId is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7eef73076169053d. Report an issue: GitHub.