flowable/flowable-engine · error · ActivitiIllegalArgumentException

Provided execution id is null

Error message

Provided execution id is null

What it means

Thrown by EventSubscriptionQueryImpl.executionId when a null execution id is passed as a query criterion. The eager validation ensures queries are well-formed when built; a null executionId filter is not a meaningful criterion and is rejected with ActivitiIllegalArgumentException. It points to a caller bug rather than an engine problem.

Solutions

1. Null-check the execution id and skip the executionId criterion when it is absent
2. Fix the upstream code that should supply a valid execution id (e.g. use execution.getId() of a live DelegateExecution)
3. If filtering by execution is conditional, build the query conditionally instead of passing null
4. Log/validate the id source to find why it is null at query time

Example fix

// before
EventSubscriptionQuery q = runtimeService.createEventSubscriptionQuery().executionId(execId);
// after
EventSubscriptionQuery q = runtimeService.createEventSubscriptionQuery();
if (execId != null) {
    q = q.executionId(execId);
}

if (executionId == null) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("executionId must be non-null before querying"); }
query.executionId(executionId);

boolean hasExecutionId(DelegateExecution e) { return e != null && e.getId() != null; }

try {
    query.executionId(execId);
} catch (org.activiti.engine.ActivitiIllegalArgumentException e) {
    // execId was null: verify you hold a live execution reference
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling createEventSubscriptionQuery().executionId(null), often when the execution id comes from an Execution/DelegateExecution reference that is null or from a variable holding an optional id.

Common situations: Using execution.getId() inside a delegate where the execution is not yet available; ids stored in process variables that were not set; refactored code where an earlier execution lookup now returns null.

Related errors

• Provided activity id is null
• Provided event name is null
• Provided event subscription id is null
• Provided process instance id is null
• activity tenant id is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2e9d75d662eede24. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable5-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/EventSubscriptionQueryImpl.java:65

    public EventSubscriptionQueryImpl eventSubscriptionId(String id) {
        if (eventSubscriptionId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Provided event subscription id is null");
        }
        this.eventSubscriptionId = id;
        return this;
    }

    public EventSubscriptionQueryImpl eventName(String eventName) {
        if (eventName == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Provided event name is null");
        }
        this.eventName = eventName;
        return this;
    }

    public EventSubscriptionQueryImpl executionId(String executionId) {
        if (executionId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Provided execution id is null");
        }
        this.executionId = executionId;
        return this;
    }

    public EventSubscriptionQueryImpl processInstanceId(String processInstanceId) {
        if (processInstanceId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Provided process instance id is null");
        }
        this.processInstanceId = processInstanceId;
        return this;
    }

    public EventSubscriptionQueryImpl activityId(String activityId) {
        if (activityId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Provided activity id is null");
        }
        this.activityId = activityId;

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