As i recall, tasks should be initiated in the start state. I've seen it work in 3.2.1, although i didn't programatically invoke it. I just used the web-console. A workaround is that you can have a start state that does nothing but transition to your first task node. With that workaround, you would also be able to use swimlanes in the first task node. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4076400#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...