flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

Provided id is null

Error message

Provided id is null

What it means

Flowable's TokenQueryImpl.tokenId(String id) throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when the id argument is null. Token queries validate all criteria eagerly so bad queries fail with a clear message instead of an SQL error. A null id is not a meaningful query criterion.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-idm-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/idm/engine/impl/TokenQueryImpl.java:65

    protected String userIdLike;
    protected String tokenData;
    protected String tokenDataLike;

    public TokenQueryImpl() {
    }

    public TokenQueryImpl(CommandContext commandContext) {
        super(commandContext);
    }

    public TokenQueryImpl(CommandExecutor commandExecutor) {
        super(commandExecutor);
    }

    @Override
    public TokenQuery tokenId(String id) {
        if (id == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Provided id is null");
        }
        this.id = id;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public TokenQuery tokenIds(List<String> ids) {
        if (ids == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Provided ids is null");
        }
        this.ids = ids;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public TokenQuery tokenValue(String tokenValue) {
        if (tokenValue == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Provided token value is null");

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Guard with a null check and only call tokenId when an id is present
2. Skip the criterion if you intend a broad query, or use tokenIds(List) with a validated non-null list
3. Log/return a domain-level 'token id missing' error from your service instead of building a query

Example fix

// before
Token token = identityService.createTokenQuery().tokenId(tokenId).singleResult();
// after
if (tokenId == null) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("token id required");
}
Token token = identityService.createTokenQuery().tokenId(tokenId).singleResult();

if (tokenId == null) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("tokenId must not be null before tokenId()"); }

boolean hasTokenId(String tokenId) { return tokenId != null && !tokenId.isEmpty(); }

try { query.tokenId(id); } catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) { log.warn("Invalid token query: {}", e.getMessage()); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling tokenId(null) on a TokenQuery from createTokenQuery(), commonly when the token id came from a nullable variable, an entity that failed to load, or an unvalidated request parameter.

Common situations: Looking up a token by id after a lookup that returned null; passing an unset field of a DTO straight into the query builder; test code constructing queries programmatically with uninitialized values.

Related errors

• Provided ids is null
• Provided token value is null
• Provided token date is null
• Provided tokenDateBefore is null
• Provided tokenDateAfter is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/77dca70c659b90c2. Report an issue: GitHub.