flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableException

Dmn engine is not configured

Error message

Dmn engine is not configured

What it means

CommandContextUtil.getDmnRuleService(commandContext) looks up the DMN engine configuration from the command context's engine configurations; if the DMN engine is not deployed/configured alongside the CMMN engine, it throws this FlowableException instead of returning a null service. It guards against calling DMN decision logic in an installation without the DMN engine.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/util/CommandContextUtil.java:504

        return getCaseInstanceHelper(getCommandContext());
    }

    public static CaseInstanceHelper getCaseInstanceHelper(CommandContext commandContext) {
        return getCmmnEngineConfiguration(commandContext).getCaseInstanceHelper();
    }

    public static CommandContext getCommandContext() {
        return Context.getCommandContext();
    }

    public static DmnEngineConfigurationApi getDmnEngineConfiguration(CommandContext commandContext) {
        return (DmnEngineConfigurationApi) commandContext.getEngineConfigurations().get(EngineConfigurationConstants.KEY_DMN_ENGINE_CONFIG);
    }

    public static DmnDecisionService getDmnRuleService(CommandContext commandContext) {
        DmnEngineConfigurationApi dmnEngineConfiguration = getDmnEngineConfiguration(commandContext);
        if (dmnEngineConfiguration == null) {
            throw new FlowableException("Dmn engine is not configured");
        }
        return dmnEngineConfiguration.getDmnDecisionService();
    }

    public static InternalTaskAssignmentManager getInternalTaskAssignmentManager(CommandContext commandContext) {
        return getCmmnEngineConfiguration(commandContext).getTaskServiceConfiguration().getInternalTaskAssignmentManager();
    }

    public static InternalTaskAssignmentManager getInternalTaskAssignmentManager() {
        return getInternalTaskAssignmentManager(getCommandContext());
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Add the DMN engine dependency (flowable-dmn-engine / flowable-dmn-spring-configurator) and configure it, e.g. DmnEngineConfiguration.createDefaultDmnEngineConfiguration() and register it in the engine configurations
2. In Spring Boot use flowable-spring-boot-starter-cmmn plus DMN support or enable flowable.auto-deployment dmn resources
3. If DMN is intentionally absent, remove DMN-dependent decision tasks from case definitions or guard their execution
4. Verify EngineConfigurationConstants.KEY_DMN_ENGINE_CONFIG is present in commandContext.getEngineConfigurations() before invoking decision logic

Example fix

// before
CmmnEngineConfiguration cfg = CmmnEngineConfiguration.createCmmnEngineConfiguration(); // DMN missing
// after
CmmnEngineConfiguration cfg = CmmnEngineConfiguration.createCmmnEngineConfiguration();
cfg.addEngineConfiguration(EngineConfigurationConstants.KEY_DMN_ENGINE_CONFIG,
    DmnEngineConfiguration.createDefaultDmnEngineConfiguration().buildDmnEngine().getDmnEngineConfiguration());

if (!commandContext.getEngineConfigurations().containsKey(EngineConfigurationConstants.KEY_DMN_ENGINE_CONFIG)) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("DMN engine not configured; add flowable-dmn-engine to the configuration");
}

boolean isDmnAvailable(CommandContext ctx) { return ctx.getEngineConfigurations().get(EngineConfigurationConstants.KEY_DMN_ENGINE_CONFIG) != null; }

try { return CommandContextUtil.getDmnRuleService(commandContext); } catch (FlowableException e) { if ("Dmn engine is not configured".equals(e.getMessage())) { throw new IllegalStateException("Enable flowable-dmn-engine in your engine configuration", e); } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: A case (e.g. a decision task/table rule task in CMMN) executes logic requiring DmnDecisionService while the CmmnEngineConfiguration was built without a DMN engine (no dmnEngineConfiguration added to engineConfigurations under EngineConfigurationConstants.KEY_DMN_ENGINE_CONFIG).

Common situations: Embedding only flowable-cmmn-engine without flowable-dmn-engine in a standalone setup; building a custom process/case engine configuration that omits DMN; decision table plan items present in the model but DMN not on the classpath/config.

Understand the failure class

Background: "not installed", "pip install", "required for": how missing-dependency errors surface across open-source libraries — this error's family across 34 libraries.

Related errors

• Could not execute decision instance: no dmn service found. F
• DMN repository service is not available
• CommandInvoker must be the last interceptor in the chain
• HitPolicy behavior: %s not configured
• To use the case service task a CaseInstanceService implement

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cbc8a75337f867d9. Report an issue: GitHub.