flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

Invalid action, only 'execute' is supported.

Error message

Invalid action, only 'execute' is supported.

What it means

Thrown by POST /cmmn-management/jobs/{jobId} when the action request body is missing or its 'action' field is not the only supported value 'execute'. FlowableIllegalArgumentException means the request itself is invalid — a 400-class client error, not a job state problem.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-rest/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/rest/service/api/management/JobResource.java:220

        try {
            managementService.deleteDeadLetterJob(job.getId());
        } catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
            // Re-throw to have consistent error-messaging across REST-api
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find a job with id '" + jobId + "'.", Job.class);
        }
    }

    @ApiOperation(value = "Execute a single job", tags = { "Jobs" }, code = 204)
    @ApiResponses(value = {
            @ApiResponse(code = 204, message = "Indicates the job was executed. Response-body is intentionally empty."),
            @ApiResponse(code = 404, message = "Indicates the requested job was not found."),
            @ApiResponse(code = 500, message = "Indicates the an exception occurred while executing the job. The status-description contains additional detail about the error. The full error-stacktrace can be fetched later on if needed.")
    })
    @PostMapping("/cmmn-management/jobs/{jobId}")
    @ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT)
    public void executeJobAction(@ApiParam(name = "jobId") @PathVariable String jobId, @RequestBody RestActionRequest actionRequest) {
        if (actionRequest == null || !EXECUTE_ACTION.equals(actionRequest.getAction())) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Invalid action, only 'execute' is supported.");
        }
        
        Job job = getJobById(jobId);

        try {
            managementService.executeJob(job.getId());
        } catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
            // Re-throw to have consistent error-messaging across REST-api
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find a job with id '" + jobId + "'.", Job.class);
        }
    }

    @ApiOperation(value = "Execute a single job action (move or reschedule)", tags = { "Jobs" }, code = 204)
    @ApiResponses(value = {
            @ApiResponse(code = 204, message = "Indicates the timer job action was executed. Response-body is intentionally empty."),
            @ApiResponse(code = 404, message = "Indicates the requested job was not found."),
            @ApiResponse(code = 500, message = "Indicates the an exception occurred while executing the job. The status-description contains additional detail about the error. The full error-stacktrace can be fetched later on if needed.")
    })

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

  1. Send {"action":"execute"} exactly as the body.
  2. Use the timer-job move/reschedule endpoints instead if you intended a move or reschedule action.
  3. Serialize the body explicitly — ensure the HTTP client actually sends the JSON (no empty body).

Example fix

// before
post("/cmmn-management/jobs/" + jobId, {"action": "reschedule"});
// after
post("/cmmn-management/jobs/" + jobId, {"action": "execute"});
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (body == null || !"execute".equals(body.getAction())) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("action must be 'execute' for CMMN jobs");
}

Try / catch

try { post("/cmmn-management/jobs/" + jobId, body); }
catch (HttpClientErrorException.Conflict | HttpClientErrorException.BadRequest e) { /* invalid action — fix body */ }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: POST /cmmn-management/jobs/{jobId} with an empty body, or {"action":"move"|"reschedule"|"kill"} — anything other than exactly 'execute'.

Common situations: Copy-pasting action bodies from the BPMN REST API (which supports move/reschedule) into the CMMN API; misspelled 'action' field; calling with no JSON body at all.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/010faeced8f9ad62. Report an issue: GitHub.