10% of Part I — the final Part I section
3 sub-topics · this deck covers sub-topic 2 of 3
↑ Module Overview"Any error that you encounter in a flow depends on the event, action, or function card that caused it." Okta names five recurring scenarios: array index out of bounds, cache error, invalid type conversion, method timeout exceeded, and API errors. Before diagnosing which one you have, you need to actually read the message.
Two ways to surface an error message in a flow:
Test a card — click the Test this card icon on the card producing the error, then click Test in the dialog.
Execution history — open the flow's Execution History page; the error message appears in that card's history. Some errors include a more detailed message returned directly from the third-party connector.
Array index out of bounds — occurs when a search action fails to find anything (e.g. Read User in Google Workspace Admin returns no users), or when a list operation is given an invalid index (e.g. the At function card called with index 6 on a five-item list).
Cache error — a flow execution error that can occur while servers are restarting after a deployment. Example: a Read Table card returns an "Invalid or missing invariant lhs value" message during that window. Active flows that hit this must be restarted.
Invalid type conversion — an action or function card expects one input type but receives another it can't convert. Example: an integer field on the True/False Compare function card receiving an unexpected object type — the boolean comparison never runs and an error is returned instead.
Method timeout exceeded — a card attempts an operation but doesn't get a response before its internal timeout (each card has its own timeout setting, in seconds).
API errors — beyond in-designer errors, some action/event cards output HTTP status codes plus an API error message on failure (e.g. Activate User in Salesforce, Delete Issue in Jira).
Sub-topic 1 was about structural problems — a flow that won't even save. This sub-topic is about runtime problems — a flow that saves and runs, but fails on a specific execution. API errors are the bridge to sub-topic 3: when a card fails and returns an HTTP status code, you need to know how to read that code, which is exactly what's next.
Watch for this in your own build:
→ Treating "array index out of bounds" as always an off-by-one bug in a list. Just as often it's a search action card (like Read User) that came back with zero results — the fix is upstream error handling around the search, not the index math.
Sources: help.okta.com — ext-workflows-error-messages
Next: Sub-topic 3 →