flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

no event definitions deployed with key

Error message

no event definitions deployed with key '${eventDefinitionKey}' for tenant identifier '${tenantId}'

What it means

findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndTenantId throws FlowableObjectNotFoundException when no event definition with the given key is deployed for the given tenant. The combined key+tenant lookup in the database returned nothing.

Solutions

Verify the definition is deployed with that exact key and TENANT_ID_ value
Deploy the event definition for the specific tenant if missing
Fall back to the non-tenant lookup (findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKey) when the tenant-scoped lookup is allowed to miss
Check that the tenantId passed matches how deployments set tenant (null vs empty-string semantics)

Example fix

// before
def = deploymentManager.findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndTenantId("order.created", tenantId);
// after
try {
    def = deploymentManager.findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndTenantId("order.created", tenantId);
} catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
    def = deploymentManager.findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKey("order.created"); // tenant fallback
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

try {
    def = deploymentManager.findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndTenantId(key, tenantId);
} catch (org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
    def = deploymentManager.findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKey(key); // tenant fallback if applicable
}

Prevention

Deploy definitions per tenant for every tenant that will use them
Normalize tenant ids (avoid null vs "" mismatches) when deploying and querying
Log tenantId alongside the key on failure for faster diagnosis

When it happens

Trigger: Calling findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndTenantId with a key/tenant pair where the definition was deployed under a different tenant (or with a null/empty tenant), or not deployed at all in that tenant's scope.

Common situations: Multi-tenant setups where deployments only ran for tenant 'acme' but the runtime looks up tenant 'other'; missing tenantId propagation so the default tenant is used; definitions deployed without tenant but queried with one.

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

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1acdbf54e1bfe95a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-event-registry/src/main/java/org/flowable/eventregistry/impl/persistence/deploy/EventDeploymentManager.java:131

        eventDefinition = resolveEventDefinition(eventDefinition).getEventDefinitionEntity();
        return eventDefinition;
    }
    
    public ChannelDefinitionEntity findDeployedLatestChannelDefinitionByKey(String channelDefinitionKey) {
        ChannelDefinitionEntity channelDefinition = channelDefinitionEntityManager.findLatestChannelDefinitionByKey(channelDefinitionKey);

        if (channelDefinition == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("no channel definitions deployed with key '" + channelDefinitionKey + "'");
        }
        channelDefinition = resolveChannelDefinition(channelDefinition).getChannelDefinitionEntity();
        return channelDefinition;
    }

    public EventDefinitionEntity findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndTenantId(String eventDefinitionKey, String tenantId) {
        EventDefinitionEntity eventDefinition = eventDefinitionEntityManager.findLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndTenantId(eventDefinitionKey, tenantId);

        if (eventDefinition == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("no event definitions deployed with key '" + eventDefinitionKey + "' for tenant identifier '" + tenantId + "'");
        }
        eventDefinition = resolveEventDefinition(eventDefinition).getEventDefinitionEntity();
        return eventDefinition;
    }

    public EventDefinitionEntity findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKeyAndDeploymentId(String eventDefinitionKey, String deploymentId) {
        EventDefinitionEntity eventDefinition = eventDefinitionEntityManager.findEventDefinitionByDeploymentAndKey(deploymentId, eventDefinitionKey);

        if (eventDefinition == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("no event definitions deployed with key '" + eventDefinitionKey +
                    "' for deployment id '" + deploymentId + "'");
        }
        eventDefinition = resolveEventDefinition(eventDefinition).getEventDefinitionEntity();
        return eventDefinition;
    }

    public EventDefinitionEntity findDeployedLatestEventDefinitionByKeyDeploymentIdAndTenantId(String eventDefinitionKey, String deploymentId, String tenantId) {
        EventDefinitionEntity eventDefinition = eventDefinitionEntityManager.findEventDefinitionByDeploymentAndKeyAndTenantId(deploymentId, eventDefinitionKey, tenantId);

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