flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

task tenant id is null

Error message

task tenant id is null

What it means

Flowable's TaskQueryImpl.taskTenantId() validates its argument before storing the query filter. Passing a null tenant id would produce an ambiguous SQL predicate, so the library fails fast with FlowableIllegalArgumentException. The caller must supply a non-null tenant id string (or use taskWithoutTenantId for null-tenant tasks).

Solutions

1. Pass an actual tenant id string, e.g. .taskTenantId("acme")
2. If you mean tasks with no tenant, call taskWithoutTenantId() instead
3. Null-check the variable before building the query and skip the filter or fall back to a default tenant

Example fix

// before
String tenant = getTenantFromSession(); // may be null
List<Task> tasks = taskService.createTaskQuery().taskTenantId(tenant).list();
// after
String tenant = getTenantFromSession();
TaskQuery query = taskService.createTaskQuery();
if (tenant != null) { query = query.taskTenantId(tenant); }
List<Task> tasks = query.list();

if (tenantId == null) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("tenantId must be set before calling taskTenantId");
}
query.taskTenantId(tenantId);

boolean hasTenant(String t) { return t != null && !t.trim().isEmpty(); }

try {
    tasks = taskService.createTaskQuery().taskTenantId(tenantId).list();
} catch (org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    log.warn("Invalid query argument: {}", e.getMessage());
    tasks = Collections.emptyList();
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling taskService.createTaskQuery().taskTenantId(null), directly or via a variable holding the tenant id that is null at runtime.

Common situations: Tenant id resolved from user session, config, or request header is unset/null; multi-tenant setups where a fallback default tenant was never configured.

Related errors

• Assignee is null
• Assignee is null
• AssigneeLike is null
• AssigneeLike is null
• assigneeLikeIgnoreCase is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9d51c8ce5692025c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-task-service/src/main/java/org/flowable/task/service/impl/TaskQueryImpl.java:692

            this.candidateGroups = candidateGroups;
        }
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public TaskQuery ignoreAssigneeValue() {
        if (orActive) {
            currentOrQueryObject.ignoreAssigneeValue = true;
        } else {
            this.ignoreAssigneeValue = true;
        }
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public TaskQuery taskTenantId(String tenantId) {
        if (tenantId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("task tenant id is null");
        }
        if (orActive) {
            currentOrQueryObject.tenantId = tenantId;
        } else {
            this.tenantId = tenantId;
        }
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public TaskQuery taskTenantIdLike(String tenantIdLike) {
        if (tenantIdLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("task tenant id is null");
        }
        if (orActive) {
            currentOrQueryObject.tenantIdLike = tenantIdLike;
        } else {
            this.tenantIdLike = tenantIdLike;

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