flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

Invalid reschedule timer action. Reschedule timer actions…

Error message

Invalid reschedule timer action. Reschedule timer actions must have a valid due date.

What it means

FlowableIllegalArgumentException thrown when action='reschedule' is sent to POST /management/timer-jobs/{jobId} but the request body has no 'dueDate' field. Rescheduling requires an explicit new due date, which is validated before the job is rescheduled via managementService.rescheduleTimeDateJob.

Solutions

1. Add a valid dueDate to the request body: {"action":"reschedule","dueDate":"2026-09-12T10:00:00Z"}
2. Send an ISO-8601 date string the server can parse into a Date
3. If no new date is intended, use action 'move' instead to push the timer job to the executable table immediately
4. Validate client-side that dueDate is non-null and parseable before calling the endpoint

Example fix

// before
{"action":"reschedule"}
// after
{"action":"reschedule","dueDate":"2026-09-12T10:00:00+02:00"}

if (action === 'reschedule' && (!dueDate || isNaN(Date.parse(dueDate)))) throw new Error('valid dueDate required for reschedule');

function hasDueDate(b) { return typeof b?.dueDate === 'string' && !isNaN(Date.parse(b.dueDate)); }

When it happens

Trigger: POST /management/timer-jobs/{jobId} with {"action":"reschedule"} and either no dueDate key, dueDate: null, or an empty string that maps to null.

Common situations: Clients that copy the 'move' action payload and only change the action field, forms that leave the date picker empty, DTO serialization dropping null fields client-side, misunderstanding that reschedule requires dueDate while move does not.

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

• Id cannot be null.
• A request body was expected when executing the form submit.
• Attachment name is required.
• Comment text is required.
• Either processDefinitionId, processDefinitionKey or message…

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2b14d30f34778ba9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-rest/src/main/java/org/flowable/rest/service/api/management/JobResource.java:298

    @PostMapping("/management/timer-jobs/{jobId}")
    @ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT)
    public void executeTimerJobAction(@ApiParam(name = "jobId") @PathVariable String jobId, @RequestBody TimerJobActionRequest actionRequest) {
        if (actionRequest == null || !(MOVE_ACTION.equals(actionRequest.getAction()) || RESCHEDULE_ACTION.equals(actionRequest.getAction()))) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Invalid action, only 'move' or 'reschedule' are supported.");
        }
        
        Job job = getTimerJobById(jobId);

        if (MOVE_ACTION.equals(actionRequest.getAction())) {
            try {
                managementService.moveTimerToExecutableJob(job.getId());
            } catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
                // Re-throw to have consistent error-messaging across REST-api
                throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find a timer job with id '" + jobId + "'.", Job.class);
            }
        } else if (RESCHEDULE_ACTION.equals(actionRequest.getAction())) {
            if (actionRequest.getDueDate() == null) {
                throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Invalid reschedule timer action. Reschedule timer actions must have a valid due date.");
            }
            try {
                managementService.rescheduleTimeDateJob(job.getId(), actionRequest.getDueDate());
            } catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
                // Re-throw to have consistent error-messaging across REST-api
                throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find a timer job with id '" + jobId + "'.", Job.class);
            }
        }
    }
    
    @ApiOperation(value = "Move a single deadletter job. Accepts 'move' and 'moveToHistoryJob' as action.", tags = { "Jobs" }, code = 204)
    @ApiResponses(value = {
            @ApiResponse(code = 204, message = "Indicates the dead letter job was moved. 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("/management/deadletter-jobs/{jobId}")
    @ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT)

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