flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

No case definition found for id = '

Error message

No case definition found for id = '

What it means

After a non-null id is validated, SetCaseDefinitionCategoryCmd looks up the CaseDefinitionEntity. If no case definition exists for the given id, it throws FlowableObjectNotFoundException with the id and CaseDefinition.class.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/cmd/SetCaseDefinitionCategoryCmd.java:48

    protected String caseDefinitionId;
    protected String category;

    public SetCaseDefinitionCategoryCmd(String caseDefinitionId, String category) {
        this.caseDefinitionId = caseDefinitionId;
        this.category = category;
    }

    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {

        if (caseDefinitionId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Case definition id is null");
        }

        CaseDefinitionEntity caseDefinition = CommandContextUtil.getCaseDefinitionEntityManager(commandContext).findById(caseDefinitionId);

        if (caseDefinition == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("No case definition found for id = '" + caseDefinitionId + "'", CaseDefinition.class);
        }

        // Update category
        caseDefinition.setCategory(category);

        // Remove case definition from cache, it will be refetch later
        DeploymentCache<CaseDefinitionCacheEntry> caseDefinitionCache = CommandContextUtil.getCmmnEngineConfiguration(commandContext).getCaseDefinitionCache();
        if (caseDefinitionCache != null) {
            caseDefinitionCache.remove(caseDefinitionId);
        }

        return null;
    }

    public String getCaseDefinitionId() {
        return caseDefinitionId;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Fetch the id via CaseDefinitionQuery (repositoryService.createCaseDefinitionQuery()) instead of hardcoding
2. Verify the id exists in ACT_RE_CASEDEF for the connected datasource
3. Confirm you are not passing a process definition id by mistake

Example fix

// before
repoService.setCaseDefinitionCategory(wrongId, "hr");
// after
CaseDefinition def = repoService.createCaseDefinitionQuery().caseDefinitionKey("myCase").latestVersion().singleResult();
repoService.setCaseDefinitionCategory(def.getId(), "hr");

if (repoService.createCaseDefinitionQuery().caseDefinitionId(id).count() == 0) throw new IllegalStateException("Unknown case definition " + id);

try { repoService.setCaseDefinitionCategory(id, category); } catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) { log.warn("Case definition not found: {}", id); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling setCaseDefinitionCategory with a fabricated, deleted, or wrong-engine definition id; using an id from a different Flowable engine (e.g. a process definition id instead of a case definition id).

Common situations: Mixing process/case definition ids; definition removed by cleanup or redeploy; id copied from a different environment's database.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot find case definition with id
• Cannot find case definition for id:
• Cannot find the case definition to migrate to, identified by
• No case definition found for key <caseDefinitionKey>
• Case definition was not found by key '<caseDefinitionKey>'.

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b7ae01a40a431c94. Report an issue: GitHub.