hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · AnnotationException

'@AttributeAccessor' annotation must specify a 'strategy'

Error message

'@AttributeAccessor' annotation must specify a 'strategy'

What it means

@AttributeAccessor's strategy attribute defaults to the PropertyAccessStrategy interface itself, which acts as the 'not specified' marker. AttributeAccessorBinder treats that default as a mapping error - an accessor annotation without a strategy would silently change nothing - and throws AnnotationException at bootstrap.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/binder/internal/AttributeAccessorBinder.java:32

/**
 * Configures the {@link PropertyAccessStrategy} for an attribute.
 *
 * @author Gavin King
 */
public class AttributeAccessorBinder implements AttributeBinder<AttributeAccessor> {
	@Override
	public void bind(
			AttributeAccessor accessor,
			MetadataBuildingContext buildingContext,
			PersistentClass persistentClass,
			Property property) {
		final var type = accessor.strategy();
		if ( !PropertyAccessStrategy.class.equals(type) ) {
			property.setPropertyAccessorName( type.getName() );
		}
		else {
			throw new AnnotationException("'@AttributeAccessor' annotation must specify a 'strategy'");
		}
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Specify a concrete strategy: @AttributeAccessor(strategy = MyPropertyAccessStrategy.class).
2. If no custom accessor is wanted, delete the annotation.

Example fix

// before
@AttributeAccessor // or strategy = PropertyAccessStrategy.class
private String name;
// after
@AttributeAccessor(strategy = MyPropertyAccessStrategy.class)
private String name;

// scan entities at startup so the bad annotation surfaces before runtime
for (Class<?> c : entityClasses) {
    for (Field f : c.getDeclaredFields()) {
        AttributeAccessor a = f.getAnnotation(AttributeAccessor.class);
        if (a != null && PropertyAccessStrategy.class.equals(a.strategy())) {
            throw new IllegalStateException(c.getName() + "." + f.getName() + " has @AttributeAccessor without a strategy");
        }
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Writing @AttributeAccessor with no attributes (or explicitly strategy = PropertyAccessStrategy.class) on an entity field/property/class during annotation binding.

Common situations: IDE auto-completion inserting the marker interface; copy-pasting the annotation without the strategy attribute; intending a custom accessor but forgetting the attribute.

Related errors

• Write expression in '@ColumnTransformer' for property '${pro
• Cannot perform #forceNotNull because internal org.hibernate.
• '@ColumnDefault' may only be applied to single-column mappin
• '@GeneratedColumn' may only be applied to single-column mapp
• '@Check' may only be applied to single-column mappings but '

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c038a253b9ce92bd. Report an issue: GitHub.