diff --git a/java/google/registry/flows/FlowModule.java b/java/google/registry/flows/FlowModule.java
index 0d1dfe6ff..aab0f04ac 100644
--- a/java/google/registry/flows/FlowModule.java
+++ b/java/google/registry/flows/FlowModule.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ package google.registry.flows;
 
 import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkState;
 
+import com.google.common.base.Strings;
 import dagger.Module;
 import dagger.Provides;
 import google.registry.flows.exceptions.OnlyToolCanPassMetadataException;
@@ -27,7 +28,6 @@ import google.registry.model.eppinput.EppInput.ResourceCommandWrapper;
 import google.registry.model.eppinput.ResourceCommand;
 import google.registry.model.reporting.HistoryEntry;
 import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
-import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 import javax.inject.Qualifier;
 
 /** Module to choose and instantiate an EPP flow. */
@@ -147,10 +147,11 @@ public class FlowModule {
 
   @Provides
   @FlowScope
-  @Nullable
   @ClientId
   static String provideClientId(SessionMetadata sessionMetadata) {
-    return sessionMetadata.getClientId();
+    // Treat a missing clientId as null so we can always inject a non-null value. All we do with the
+    // clientId is log it (as "") or detect its absence, both of which work fine with empty.
+    return Strings.nullToEmpty(sessionMetadata.getClientId());
   }
 
   @Provides
@@ -187,7 +188,7 @@ public class FlowModule {
       Trid trid,
       @InputXml byte[] inputXmlBytes,
       @Superuser boolean isSuperuser,
-      @ClientId @Nullable String clientId,
+      @ClientId String clientId,
       EppRequestSource eppRequestSource,
       EppInput eppInput) {
     HistoryEntry.Builder historyBuilder = new HistoryEntry.Builder()
diff --git a/java/google/registry/flows/FlowRunner.java b/java/google/registry/flows/FlowRunner.java
index bf94c110d..0e1a95377 100644
--- a/java/google/registry/flows/FlowRunner.java
+++ b/java/google/registry/flows/FlowRunner.java
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 
 package google.registry.flows;
 
-import static com.google.common.base.Strings.nullToEmpty;
 import static com.google.common.base.Throwables.getStackTraceAsString;
 import static com.google.common.io.BaseEncoding.base64;
 import static google.registry.model.ofy.ObjectifyService.ofy;
@@ -34,7 +33,6 @@ import google.registry.model.eppoutput.EppOutput;
 import google.registry.monitoring.whitebox.EppMetric;
 import google.registry.util.Clock;
 import google.registry.util.FormattingLogger;
-import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 import javax.inject.Inject;
 import javax.inject.Provider;
 import org.joda.time.DateTime;
@@ -57,7 +55,7 @@ public class FlowRunner {
 
   private static final FormattingLogger logger = FormattingLogger.getLoggerForCallerClass();
 
-  @Inject @Nullable @ClientId String clientId;
+  @Inject @ClientId String clientId;
   @Inject Clock clock;
   @Inject TransportCredentials credentials;
   @Inject EppInput eppInput;
@@ -96,7 +94,7 @@ public class FlowRunner {
         REPORTING_LOG_SIGNATURE,
         JSONValue.toJSONString(ImmutableMap.<String, Object>of(
             "trid", trid.getServerTransactionId(),
-            "clientId", nullToEmpty(clientId),
+            "clientId", clientId,
             "xml", prettyXml,
             "xmlBytes", xmlBase64)));
     if (!isTransactional) {
diff --git a/javatests/google/registry/flows/FlowRunnerTest.java b/javatests/google/registry/flows/FlowRunnerTest.java
index 36aa64a17..2548f35fd 100644
--- a/javatests/google/registry/flows/FlowRunnerTest.java
+++ b/javatests/google/registry/flows/FlowRunnerTest.java
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ public class FlowRunnerTest extends ShardableTestCase {
 
   @Test
   public void testRun_reportingLogStatement_noClientId() throws Exception {
-    flowRunner.clientId = null;
+    flowRunner.clientId = "";
     flowRunner.run();
     assertThat(parseJsonMap(findLogMessageByPrefix(handler, "EPP-REPORTING-LOG-SIGNATURE: ")))
         .containsExactly(