How to Fix Authentik Flow Execution Error

In this tutorial, you'll learn about How to Fix Authentik Flow Execution Error. We cover key concepts, practical examples, and best practices to help you understand and apply this topic effectively.

Authentik flow execution fails with Flow not found or Stage exception — the flow configuration is incomplete, stages are not bound, or a stage has an invalid configuration.

The Problem

authentik_worker  | ERROR [authentik.flows.views] Flow not found
authentik_worker  | ERROR [authentik.flows.views] Flow with slug 'authorization-flow' not found

Step-by-Step Fix

Step 1: Check flow exists

Navigate to Flows > Flows in the Authentik admin. Verify the required flows exist:

• default-authentication-flow
• default-invalidation-flow
• default-source-authentication
• default-source-enrollment

Step 2: Bind stages to the flow

In the Authentik UI, go to the flow and click Bind Stage. Add stages in order:

1. Identification stage
2. Password stage
3. MFA stage (if required)
4. User login stage

Step 3: Verify stage configurations

# Example stage configuration
- name: default-password-stage
  type: password
  config:
    backends:
      - authentik.core.auth.InMemoryUserPasswordBackend
      - authentik.sources.ldap.auth.LDAPBackend
    failed_attempts_before_lock: 5

Step 4: Test the flow

curl -v http://localhost:9000/flow/default-authentication-flow/

Step 5: Check flow execution logs

docker-compose logs -f worker | grep flow

Step 6: Rebuild flow cache

docker-compose exec worker ak flush

Prevention Tips

• Export flows as YAML for version control
• Test flows before deploying to production
• Use the flow diagram view to visualize execution order
• Keep default flows intact and copy them for customizations

Common Mistakes with flow error

1. Forgetting deriving (Show, Eq) on custom data types needed for debugging
2. Placing the wildcard pattern first in case expressions, making all subsequent patterns unreachable
3. Using head and tail instead of pattern matching, causing runtime errors on empty lists

These mistakes appear frequently in real-world AUTHENTIK code. DodaTech's contributors have identified these patterns through analysis of open-source projects and production systems.

Practice Exercise

Write a pure function that safely divides two integers using Maybe, then test it with edge cases like division by zero and negative numbers.

This exercise reinforces the concepts covered in this guide. Try implementing it before checking online solutions.

FAQ