## TL;DR
Re-authenticate and retry the deprovision with a fresh session. E0000038 means the session the request relies on is no longer valid.

## Error
```text
E0000038: Invalid session. The session is invalid.
```

## Steps
1. Confirm the error code is E0000038 on the deprovision call. Expected: invalid session, not invalid token or forbidden.
2. Establish a fresh session: re-authenticate the service identity (new API token or fresh OAuth tokens) before retrying. Expected: valid credentials in hand.
3. Retry the deprovision operation for the user. Expected: the deprovision proceeds.
4. Verify the user reached the intended state (DEPROVISIONED) and downstream apps were notified. Expected: deprovision complete end to end.

## When to use
- Deprovision calls return E0000038
- A long offboarding workflow fails partway with session errors
- The session was created long before the deprovision step ran

## When not to use
- The error is E0000206 (expired API token session: mint a new token)
- The deprovision fails with 403 (permissions)
- The user will not deprovision because of app-level blocks (check the app)

## Tool compatibility
Okta Lifecycle Management API. Session handling is the same for user and app deprovisioning.

### Variant phrasings
### invalid session only on the second step of a workflow
The workflow holds one session across steps that take longer than the session lifetime. Re-authenticate per step.

### E0000038 after an admin password change
Password changes invalidate sessions. Re-authenticate after any credential change.

## Why it happens
Multi-step offboarding workflows often authenticate once and then run for a long time. When the session dies mid-workflow, the remaining steps fail with E0000038 until the workflow re-authenticates.

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_DLSJnHpX8X6dv9IKliNELw