flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

Deployment id is null

Error message

Deployment id is null

What it means

AppDeploymentQueryImpl.deploymentId() throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when the deploymentId argument is null. Query filters require an explicit value; a null filter is ambiguous so the fluent API rejects it eagerly.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-app-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/app/engine/impl/repository/AppDeploymentQueryImpl.java:60

    protected String tenantIdLike;
    protected boolean withoutTenantId;
    protected boolean latest;

    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl() {
    }

    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl(CommandContext commandContext) {
        super(commandContext);
    }

    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl(CommandExecutor commandExecutor) {
        super(commandExecutor);
    }

    @Override
    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl deploymentId(String deploymentId) {
        if (deploymentId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Deployment id is null");
        }
        this.deploymentId = deploymentId;
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl deploymentIds(List<String> deploymentIds) {
        if (deploymentIds == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Deployment ids is null");
        }
        this.deploymentIds = deploymentIds;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl deploymentName(String deploymentName) {
        if (deploymentName == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("deploymentName is null");

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Check deploymentId != null before building the query.
2. Capture the Deployment returned by deploy() to obtain a reliable id.
3. Skip the filter call conditionally when the id is absent (e.g. omit deploymentId()).
4. Catch FlowableIllegalArgumentException at the API boundary and return a 400-style message.

Example fix

// before
AppDeploymentQuery q = createDeploymentQuery().deploymentId(id); // id may be null
// after
if (id == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("deploymentId required");
AppDeploymentQuery q = createDeploymentQuery().deploymentId(id);

if (deploymentId == null) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("deploymentId is required"); }

try {
    query.deploymentId(deploymentId);
} catch (org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    throw new javax.ws.rs.BadRequestException("deploymentId must not be null", e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling appRepositoryService.createDeploymentQuery().deploymentId(null), typically with a variable that was not populated from a prior deployment result.

Common situations: Storing createDeployment().deploy() result in a field that stayed null, or passing an unset request parameter straight into the query.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Deployment ids is null
• deploymentName is null
• deploymentNameLike is null
• deploymentCategory is null
• deploymentCategoryExclude is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/085352f9ad54c5ed. Report an issue: GitHub.