flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableException

There are ${results.size} case definitions with key = '${cas

Error message

There are ${results.size} case definitions with key = '${caseDefinitionKey}' and version = '${caseDefinitionVersion}' in tenant = '${tenantId}'.

What it means

Thrown by MybatisCaseDefinitionDataManager.findCaseDefinitionByKeyAndVersionAndTenantId when more than one case definition matches the given key, version and tenantId. The lookup must resolve to exactly one row, so duplicates within a tenant are treated as an integrity error.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/persistence/entity/data/impl/MybatisCaseDefinitionDataManager.java:124

            return results.get(0);
        } else if (results.size() > 1) {
            throw new FlowableException("There are " + results.size() + " case definitions with key = '" + caseDefinitionKey + "' and version = '" + caseDefinitionVersion + "'.");
        }
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public CaseDefinitionEntity findCaseDefinitionByKeyAndVersionAndTenantId(String caseDefinitionKey, Integer caseDefinitionVersion, String tenantId) {
        Map<String, Object> params = new HashMap<>();
        params.put("caseDefinitionKey", caseDefinitionKey);
        params.put("caseDefinitionVersion", caseDefinitionVersion);
        params.put("tenantId", tenantId);
        List<CaseDefinitionEntity> results = getDbSqlSession().selectList("selectCaseDefinitionsByKeyAndVersionAndTenantId", params);
        if (results.size() == 1) {
            return results.get(0);
        } else if (results.size() > 1) {
            throw new FlowableException(
                    "There are " + results.size() + " case definitions with key = '" + caseDefinitionKey + "' and version = '" + caseDefinitionVersion
                            + "' in tenant = '" + tenantId + "'.");
        }
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void updateCaseDefinitionTenantIdForDeployment(String deploymentId, String newTenantId) {
        HashMap<String, Object> params = new HashMap<>();
        params.put("deploymentId", deploymentId);
        params.put("tenantId", newTenantId);
        getDbSqlSession().directUpdate("updateCaseDefinitionTenantIdForDeploymentId", params);
    }

    @Override
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public List<CaseDefinition> findCaseDefinitionsByQueryCriteria(CaseDefinitionQueryImpl caseDefinitionQuery) {
        setSafeInValueLists(caseDefinitionQuery);

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Inspect the database for duplicates: SELECT * FROM ACT_CMMN_CASEDEF WHERE KEY_ = ? AND VERSION_ = ? AND TENANT_ID_ = ?
2. Remove or merge duplicate rows so the combination is unique
3. Redeploy the case definition correctly so a new version (not a duplicate version) is created

Example fix

// before
// DB contains two rows for (key='orderFlow', version=3, tenant='tenantA')
CaseDefinition cd = em.findCaseDefinitionByKeyAndVersionAndTenantId("orderFlow", 3, "tenantA"); // throws
// after
DELETE FROM ACT_CMMN_CASEDEF WHERE ID_ = 'duplicateRowId';
CaseDefinition cd = em.findCaseDefinitionByKeyAndVersionAndTenantId("orderFlow", 3, "tenantA");

try {
    return dataManager.findCaseDefinitionByKeyAndVersionAndTenantId(key, version, tenantId);
} catch (FlowableException e) {
    // inspect duplicates for this tenant, clean up and retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling findCaseDefinitionByKeyAndVersionAndTenantId(key, version, tenantId) when the tenant's rows for that key/version are duplicated in the database.

Common situations: Duplicated rows after a database restore, migration script running twice, or accidental redeployment with forced same-version insertion; also seen when tenantId filtering was misconfigured in upstream code.

Understand the failure class

Background: EmptyResultError / "no results found": when an API or scraper succeeds but returns zero rows — this error's family across 9 libraries.

Related errors

• There are ${results.size} case definitions with key = '${cas
• There are ${count} decisions with key = '${decisionKey}' and
• Setting variable is not supported for read only delegate exe
• Setting transient variable is not supported for read only de
• Setting localized name is not supported for read only delega

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fef80db394bf3cc9. Report an issue: GitHub.