flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

deployment does not exist: <deploymentId>

Error message

deployment does not exist: <deploymentId>

What it means

When findResourceByDeploymentIdAndResourceName returns no resource, GetDeploymentResourceCmd distinguishes two causes. If the deployment id itself does not exist in the deployment entity manager, it throws FlowableObjectNotFoundException "deployment does not exist: <id>". So the deployment id is a valid format but refers to no persisted deployment.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-dmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/dmn/engine/impl/cmd/GetDeploymentResourceCmd.java:52

    public GetDeploymentResourceCmd(String deploymentId, String resourceName) {
        this.deploymentId = deploymentId;
        this.resourceName = resourceName;
    }

    @Override
    public InputStream execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        if (deploymentId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("deploymentId is null");
        }
        if (resourceName == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("resourceName is null");
        }

        DmnResourceEntity resource = CommandContextUtil.getResourceEntityManager().findResourceByDeploymentIdAndResourceName(deploymentId, resourceName);
        if (resource == null) {
            if (CommandContextUtil.getDeploymentEntityManager(commandContext).findById(deploymentId) == null) {
                throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("deployment does not exist: " + deploymentId);
            } else {
                throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("no resource found with name '" + resourceName + "' in deployment '" + deploymentId + "'");
            }
        }
        return new ByteArrayInputStream(resource.getBytes());
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Resolve the current deployment id at runtime via createDeploymentQuery() instead of hard-coding/stale ids
2. Confirm you are using dmnRepositoryService (DMN deployments), not the process engine's repository service
3. Catch FlowableObjectNotFoundException and either redeploy the resource or return a 404-style response to the caller

Example fix

// before
repoService.getDeploymentResource("771", "rules.dmn"); // stale id
// after
Deployment d = repoService.createDeploymentQuery().deploymentName("rules").latest().singleResult();
if (d == null) throw new NotFoundException("rules deployment missing");
repoService.getDeploymentResource(d.getId(), "rules.dmn");

DmnDeploymentEntity dep = CommandContextUtil.getDeploymentEntityManager(ctx).findById(deploymentId); // or deployment query
if (dep == null) throw new NotFoundException("deployment " + deploymentId + " not deployed");

try { return repoService.getDeploymentResource(depId, name); } catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("deployment does not exist")) { return ResponseEntity.notFound().build(); } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: getDeploymentResource("12345", "file.dmn") where 12345 was never deployed or was deleted — e.g. an id from another engine's database, a stale id after redeployment, or a fabricated id in a test.

Common situations: Hard-coded deployment ids after re-provisioning the database; using a process-engine deployment id against the DMN repository service (separate tables); cleanup jobs removing old deployments while code still caches ids.

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

• resource '${resource}' not found
• Could not find a resource with id '${resourceName}' in deplo
• Required decision <decisionId> is not available
• no decision service with id: '<decisionKey>' found in defini
• deploymentId is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9bf6180b15b8f7ac. Report an issue: GitHub.