flowable/flowable-engine · error · ActivitiIllegalArgumentException

Provided tentant id is null

Error message

Provided tentant id is null

What it means

JobQueryImpl.jobTenantId(String) filters jobs to those belonging to one specific tenant. A null tenant id throws ActivitiIllegalArgumentException at query-build time; null is not accepted as a way to 'clear' the tenant filter, so the error is a fail-fast guard against accidental unscoped queries.

Solutions

1. Resolve the tenant id before query building and only call jobTenantId() when it is present
2. Fix the tenant resolution (auth context, header extraction) that returned null
3. If all tenants should be searched, omit the call instead of passing null

Example fix

// before
JobQuery query = managementService.createJobQuery().jobTenantId(getCurrentTenant());

// after
JobQuery query = managementService.createJobQuery();
String tenantId = getCurrentTenant();
if (tenantId != null) {
    query = query.jobTenantId(tenantId);
}

Objects.requireNonNull(tenantId, "Tenant id must be resolved before querying jobs");

boolean hasTenant = (String t) -> t != null && !t.trim().isEmpty();

try {
    query = query.jobTenantId(tenantId);
} catch (ActivitiIllegalArgumentException e) {
    if (!e.getMessage().contains("tentant id is null")) throw e;
    // tenant context missing: require re-authentication or return a clear error
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling managementService.createJobQuery().jobTenantId(null) before executing the query.

Common situations: Multi-tenant applications where the tenant id comes from a request header, thread-local, or security context that was not populated (e.g. anonymous or system jobs); a tenant resolution service returning null; version-migration code where the tenant field was newly introduced.

Related errors

• case definition tenantId is null
• caseDefinition tenantId is null
• deploymentTenantId is null
• deploymentTenantIdLike is null
• processDefinition tenantId is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/47f89b6e3fc4461d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable5-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/JobQueryImpl.java:211

    @Override
    public JobQuery withException() {
        this.withException = true;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public JobQuery exceptionMessage(String exceptionMessage) {
        if (exceptionMessage == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Provided exception message is null");
        }
        this.exceptionMessage = exceptionMessage;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public JobQuery jobTenantId(String tenantId) {
        if (tenantId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Provided tentant id is null");
        }
        this.tenantId = tenantId;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public JobQuery jobTenantIdLike(String tenantIdLike) {
        if (tenantIdLike == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Provided tentant id is null");
        }
        this.tenantIdLike = tenantIdLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public JobQuery jobWithoutTenantId() {
        this.withoutTenantId = true;
        return this;

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