flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

Invalid app definition id : null

Error message

Invalid app definition id : null

What it means

Null-argument guard in AppDeploymentManager.findDeployedAppDefinitionById: the cache/DB lookup for a deployed app definition was requested with a null id, which is treated as an invalid identifier rather than a miss.

Solutions

1. Pass a non-null app definition id
2. Guard callers such as getAppDefinition/getAppModel so they never forward a null id

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at modules/flowable-app-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/app/engine/impl/deployer/AppDeploymentManager.java:59 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/58ca643b7a3af082. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-app-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/app/engine/impl/deployer/AppDeploymentManager.java:59

    protected DeploymentCache<AppDefinitionCacheEntry> appDefinitionCache;
    protected List<EngineDeployer> deployers;
    protected AppEngineConfiguration appEngineConfiguration;
    protected AppDeploymentEntityManager deploymentEntityManager;
    protected AppDefinitionEntityManager appDefinitionEntityManager;

    public void deploy(EngineDeployment deployment) {
        deploy(deployment, null);
    }

    public void deploy(EngineDeployment deployment, Map<String, Object> deploymentSettings) {
        for (EngineDeployer deployer : deployers) {
            deployer.deploy(deployment, deploymentSettings);
        }
    }

    public AppDefinition findDeployedAppDefinitionById(String appDefinitionId) {
        if (appDefinitionId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Invalid app definition id : null");
        }

        AppDefinitionCacheEntry cacheEntry = appDefinitionCache.get(appDefinitionId);
        AppDefinition appDefinition = cacheEntry != null ? cacheEntry.getAppDefinition() : null;

        if (appDefinition == null) {
            appDefinition = appDefinitionEntityManager.findById(appDefinitionId);
            if (appDefinition == null) {
                throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("no deployed app definition found with id '" + appDefinitionId + "'", AppDefinition.class);
            }
            appDefinition = resolveAppDefinition(appDefinition).getAppDefinition();
        }
        return appDefinition;
    }

    public AppDefinition findDeployedLatestAppDefinitionByKey(String appDefinitionKey) {
        AppDefinition appDefinition = appDefinitionEntityManager.findLatestAppDefinitionByKey(appDefinitionKey);

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