flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

latest can only be used together with a deployment key

Error message

latest can only be used together with a deployment key

What it means

Thrown by CmmnDeploymentQueryImpl.latest() when called before deploymentKey(). The 'latest' flag is only meaningful as 'latest deployment with this key'; without a key the semantics are undefined, so Flowable rejects the combination.

Solutions

1. Call deploymentKey("yourKey") before .latest(): createCmmnDeploymentQuery().deploymentKey(key).latest()
2. If you truly want the newest deployment regardless of key, sort by deployment time and take the first result instead of using latest()
3. Reorder the fluent chain so the key filter precedes latest()

Example fix

// before
CmmnDeployment d = repositoryService.createCmmnDeploymentQuery().latest().singleResult();
// after
CmmnDeployment d = repositoryService.createCmmnDeploymentQuery()
    .deploymentKey("myDeploymentKey")
    .latest()
    .singleResult();

if (key == null) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("deploymentKey must be set before latest()");
}
CmmnDeployment d = repositoryService.createCmmnDeploymentQuery()
    .deploymentKey(key).latest().singleResult();

try {
    CmmnDeployment d = query.latest().singleResult();
} catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    // add the missing deploymentKey(...) call or use a different strategy
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling createCmmnDeploymentQuery().latest() without a preceding deploymentKey(...) call, or calling latest() after building a query filtered only by category/tenant.

Common situations: Trying to fetch 'the latest deployment' overall rather than per key; reordering fluent calls so latest() runs before deploymentKey(); copy-pasted query code that dropped the key filter.

Understand the failure class

Background: Conflicting config options: "cannot be used together" — configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 162 libraries.

Related errors

• activatedBefore is null
• activity tenant id is null
• after time is null
• category is null
• categoryLike is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/816eddc4595e5b24. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/repository/CmmnDeploymentQueryImpl.java:177

            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("parentDeploymentIdLike is null");
        }
        this.parentDeploymentIdLike = parentDeploymentIdLike;
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public CmmnDeploymentQueryImpl parentDeploymentIds(List<String> parentDeploymentIds) {
        if (parentDeploymentIds == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("parentDeploymentIds is null");
        }
        this.parentDeploymentIds = parentDeploymentIds;
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public CmmnDeploymentQueryImpl latest() {
        if (key == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("latest can only be used together with a deployment key");
        }

        this.latest = true;
        return this;
    }

    // sorting ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

    @Override
    public CmmnDeploymentQuery orderByDeploymentId() {
        return orderBy(CmmnDeploymentQueryProperty.DEPLOYMENT_ID);
    }

    @Override
    public CmmnDeploymentQuery orderByDeploymentTime() {
        return orderBy(CmmnDeploymentQueryProperty.DEPLOY_TIME);
    }

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