flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

No event definition found for key '${eventDefinitionKey}' fo

Error message

No event definition found for key '${eventDefinitionKey}' for parent deployment id ${parentDeploymentId}

What it means

GetEventModelCmd.execute() looks up an EventDefinitionEntity by key (optionally scoped to a parent deployment id) and throws FlowableObjectNotFoundException when no definition exists. The event registry only serves event models for definitions that were deployed; a key that was never deployed, or not deployed under the given parent deployment, yields no row.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-event-registry/src/main/java/org/flowable/eventregistry/impl/cmd/GetEventModelCmd.java:111

            if (eventDefinitionEntity == null) {
                throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("No event definition found for key '" + eventDefinitionKey + "' for tenant identifier '" + tenantId + "'", EventDefinitionEntity.class);
            }

        } else if (eventDefinitionKey != null && (tenantId == null || EventRegistryEngineConfiguration.NO_TENANT_ID.equals(tenantId)) && parentDeploymentId != null) {

            List<EventDeployment> eventDeployments = deploymentManager.getDeploymentEntityManager().findDeploymentsByQueryCriteria(
                            new EventDeploymentQueryImpl().parentDeploymentId(parentDeploymentId));
            
            if (eventDeployments != null && eventDeployments.size() > 0) {
                eventDefinitionEntity = eventDefinitionEntityManager.findEventDefinitionByDeploymentAndKey(eventDeployments.get(0).getId(), eventDefinitionKey);
            }
            
            if (eventDefinitionEntity == null) {
                eventDefinitionEntity = eventDefinitionEntityManager.findLatestEventDefinitionByKey(eventDefinitionKey);
            }
            
            if (eventDefinitionEntity == null) {
                throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("No event definition found for key '" + eventDefinitionKey +
                        "' for parent deployment id " + parentDeploymentId, EventDefinitionEntity.class);
            }

        } else if (eventDefinitionKey != null && tenantId != null && !EventRegistryEngineConfiguration.NO_TENANT_ID.equals(tenantId) && parentDeploymentId != null) {

            List<EventDeployment> eventDeployments = deploymentManager.getDeploymentEntityManager().findDeploymentsByQueryCriteria(
                            new EventDeploymentQueryImpl().parentDeploymentId(parentDeploymentId).deploymentTenantId(tenantId));
            
            if (eventDeployments != null && eventDeployments.size() > 0) {
                eventDefinitionEntity = eventDefinitionEntityManager.findEventDefinitionByDeploymentAndKeyAndTenantId(
                                eventDeployments.get(0).getId(), eventDefinitionKey, tenantId);
            }
            
            if (eventDefinitionEntity == null) {
                eventDefinitionEntity = eventDefinitionEntityManager.findLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndTenantId(eventDefinitionKey, tenantId);
            }
            
            if (eventDefinitionEntity == null && eventEngineConfiguration.isFallbackToDefaultTenant()) {

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Verify the event definition key spelling against the deployed event definitions (check ACT_FO_EVENT_DEFINITION / event registry tables or RepositoryService-style queries).
2. Query deployments to find the actual parent deployment id that contains this key and pass that id.
3. Deploy the event definition (EventRegistryBuilder / event repository deploy) so the key exists before calling getEventModel.
4. Drop the parentDeploymentId constraint (use key-only lookup) if the definition is deployed globally.
5. If looking up by tenant, make sure the tenantId variant of the lookup is used instead.

Example fix

// before
eventRepositoryService.getEventModelByKeyAndParentDeploymentId("orderCreated", "deploy-42"); // deploy-42 has no such key
// after
// find the deployment that actually contains the key, then:
eventRepositoryService.getEventModelByKeyAndParentDeploymentId("orderCreated", correctDeploymentId);

EventDefinition d = eventRepositoryService.createEventDefinitionQuery().eventDefinitionKey(key).latestVersion().singleResult();
if (d == null) throw new IllegalStateException("Event definition key not deployed: " + key);

boolean isDeployed(String key) {
    return eventRepositoryService.createEventDefinitionQuery().eventDefinitionKey(key).count() > 0;
}

try {
    EventModel model = eventRepositoryService.getEventModelByKeyAndParentDeploymentId(key, parentDeploymentId);
} catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
    log.warn("Event definition {} not found under deployment {}", key, parentDeploymentId, e);
    // fall back to key-only lookup or redeploy
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the EventRegistryEngine's getEventModel (via GetEventModelCmd) with an eventDefinitionKey plus parentDeploymentId where (a) the key was never deployed, (b) the key is deployed but under a different parent deployment id, or (c) the definition was deleted.

Common situations: Typos in event definition keys in application config; pointing at the wrong deployment id after a redeploy (parent deployment ids change per deployment); event definitions removed by a deployment cleanup/tenant purge; copying configuration between environments where deployments differ.

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

• deployment does not exist:
• No event definition found for key '${eventDefinitionKey} for
• No deployment found for id = '${deploymentId}'
• Could not find deployment with id ${deploymentId}
• Could not find deployment with id ${deploymentId}

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8d2d07e4271063cd. Report an issue: GitHub.