Why doesn't @TransactionalEventListener(AFTER_COMMIT) trigger when event is published from another AFTER_COMMIT listener?

Question

I'm trying to chain Spring transaction events, but the second @TransactionalEventListener is not triggered when an event is published from within another AFTER_COMMIT listener. Here's a minimal example:

@Service
public class EventService {
    
    @Autowired
    private ApplicationEventPublisher eventPublisher;
    
    @Transactional(rollbackFor = Exception.class)
    public void startProcess() {
        // This is called within a transaction
        eventPublisher.publishEvent(new FirstEvent());
    }
    
    @TransactionalEventListener(phase = TransactionPhase.AFTER_COMMIT)
    public void handleFirstEvent(FirstEvent event) {
        System.out.println("FirstEvent handled successfully");
        
        // Trying to publish another event here
        eventPublisher.publishEvent(new SecondEvent());
    }
    
    @TransactionalEventListener(phase = TransactionPhase.AFTER_COMMIT)
    public void handleSecondEvent(SecondEvent event) {
        // This is NEVER called!
        System.out.println("SecondEvent handled");
    }
}

What happens:

startProcess() is called within a transaction
FirstEvent is published
After transaction commits, handleFirstEvent() is triggered ✅
SecondEvent is published from within handleFirstEvent()
handleSecondEvent() is NEVER triggered ❌

What I've tried:

Annotation on `handleFirstEvent()`	`handleSecondEvent()` triggered?
No annotation	❌ NO
`@Transactional`	❌ NO
`@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW)`	✅ YES
`@Async("asyncExecutor")`	✅ YES

Questions:

Why doesn't @Transactional on handleFirstEvent() create a proper transaction synchronization context when it's executed in the AFTER_COMMIT phase, causing the second @TransactionalEventListener to miss the event?

My logical expectation:

startProcess() runs in transaction T1
FirstEvent is published and bound to T1
T1 commits → triggers handleFirstEvent() in AFTER_COMMIT phase
handleFirstEvent() has @Transactional, and since T1 is already committed, Spring Framework should create a completely NEW transaction T2
SecondEvent is published within T2
T2 commits → should trigger handleSecondEvent() in T2's AFTER_COMMIT phase
handleSecondEvent() should execute

But in reality: Step 7 never happens. handleSecondEvent() is never called.

What's even more confusing:

When I change to @Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW), it suddenly works! But why?

Both REQUIRED (default) and REQUIRES_NEW should create a new transaction when no transaction exists
After T1 commits, there's no active transaction, so REQUIRED should behave like REQUIRES_NEW

swapyonubuntu · Accepted Answer · 2025-09-17 01:00:51Z

TLDR;

You are creating in actual only single transaction but expecting to run both callbacks that will run on different transactions altogether

If you look closely

For first event, @Transactional annotation is present on method. It creates a spring transaction for you.
Then TransactionalEventListener is called and it correctly publishes first event.
This is the step where you are mixing general Spring event publishing vs on transactional callbacks.

Referring to line
```
 eventPublisher.publishEvent(new SecondEvent());
```
Here, you are publishing event yourself not via transaction. To handle this you will have to have a ApplicationListener for listening to this event.
See example below:

@Component
public class CustomSpringEventListener implements ApplicationListener<SecondEvent> {
    @Override
    public void onApplicationEvent(SecondEvent event) {
        System.out.println("Received spring custom event - " + event.getMessage());
    }
}

For more on Spring Events refer: https://www.baeldung.com/spring-events

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