apple/pkl · error · VmException

cannotInvokeSupermethodFromHere

cannotInvokeSupermethodFromHere

Error message

cannotInvokeSupermethodFromHere

What it means

Supermethod calls (`super.foo(...)` with arguments) are only legal inside class member scopes. If the builder sees a supermethod call while the current scope is not a class member (e.g. object member, function, module property), it throws cannotInvokeSupermethodFromHere because there is no superclass dispatch target.

Source

Thrown at pkl-core/src/main/java/org/pkl/core/ast/builder/AstBuilder.java:1160

  @Override
  public ExpressionNode visitAmendsExpr(AmendsExpr expr) {
    // parentExpr is always New, Amends or Parenthesized. The parser makes sure of it in
    // `Parser.parseExprRest`
    return doVisitObjectBody(expr.getBody(), visitExpr(expr.getExpr()));
  }

  @Override
  public ExpressionNode visitSuperAccessExpr(SuperAccessExpr expr) {
    var sourceSection = createSourceSection(expr);
    var memberName = toIdentifier(expr.getIdentifier().getValue());
    var argCtx = expr.getArgumentList();
    var currentScope = symbolTable.getCurrentScope();
    var needsConst =
        currentScope.getConstLevel() == ConstLevel.ALL && currentScope.getConstDepth() == -1;

    if (argCtx != null) { // supermethod call
      if (!symbolTable.getCurrentScope().isClassMemberScope()) {
        throw exceptionBuilder()
            .evalError("cannotInvokeSupermethodFromHere")
            .withSourceSection(sourceSection)
            .build();
      }

      var argInfo = visitArgumentList(argCtx);
      return InvokeSuperMethodNodeGen.create(
          sourceSection, memberName, argInfo.getFirst(), needsConst, argInfo.getSecond());
    }

    // superproperty call
    return new ReadSuperPropertyNode(createSourceSection(expr), memberName, needsConst);
  }

  @Override
  public ExpressionNode visitSuperSubscriptExpr(SuperSubscriptExpr expr) {
    return new ReadSuperEntryNode(createSourceSection(expr), visitExpr(expr.getArg()));
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to f3efcbfc9b)

Solutions

1. Move the supermethod call into a class member (method or property override) of a class that extends a parent with the method.
2. If inside an object literal, drop the `super.` call — object amending overrides properties, not class method dispatch.
3. Call the parent's behavior indirectly, e.g. via a helper function or by referencing the base implementation explicitly.

Example fix

// before (inside object literal)
foo { x = super.x + 1 }
// after (in a class)
class A extends B { x = super.x + 1 }

// Only call super.foo(...) inside class member scopes:
class A extends B {
  foo(): Int = super.foo() + 1 // OK
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `super.method(args)` from a module-level property, an object body (amending literal), a lambda, or a standalone function rather than from a class method or property override.

Common situations: Copy-pasting a `super.` call from a class into an object literal, or misunderstanding that Pkl object members are not class members.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• Values of type `Class` cannot be rendered as YAML. Value: %s
• cannotInstantiateAbstractClass
• cannotInstantiateExternalClass
• expectedAnnotationClass
• propertyMustBeConst

AI-assisted analysis of apple/pkl@f3efcbfc9b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c0a1873825b3bad7. Report an issue: GitHub.