hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · MappingException

Recursive embeddable mapping detected for property '<path>'

Error message

Recursive embeddable mapping detected for property '<path>' of class '<className>'

What it means

Error "Recursive embeddable mapping detected for property '<path>' of class '<className>'" thrown in hibernate/hibernate-orm.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/boot/model/internal/EmbeddableBinder.java:1056

		return embeddable;
	}

	private static boolean isIdentifierMapper(PropertyData inferredData, boolean isIdentifierMapper) {
		return isIdentifierMapper && IDENTIFIER_MAPPER_PROPERTY.equals( inferredData.getPropertyName() );
	}

	private static void checkEmbeddableRecursiveHierarchy(
			TypeDetails type,
			PropertyData propertyData,
			PropertyHolder propertyHolder) {
		final var embeddableClass = type.determineRawClass();
		while ( propertyHolder.isComponent() ) {
			final var componentHolder = (ComponentPropertyHolder) propertyHolder;
			// we need to check that the embeddable is not used in a recursive hierarchy
			var classDetails = embeddableClass;
			while ( classDetails != null ) {
				if ( propertyHolder.getClassName().equals( classDetails.getClassName() ) ) {
					throw new MappingException( "Recursive embeddable mapping detected for property '"
												+ getPath( propertyHolder, propertyData )
												+ "' of class '" + propertyHolder.getClassName() + "'" );
				}
				classDetails = classDetails.getSuperClass();
			}
			propertyHolder = componentHolder.parent;
		}
	}

	private static void applyColumnNamingPattern(Component embeddable, PropertyData inferredData) {
		if ( embeddable.isDynamic() ) {
			return;
		}

		if ( inferredData.getAttributeMember() == null ) {
			// generally indicates parts of a plural mapping (element, key, bag-id)
			return;
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Break the recursive @Embedded cycle, e.g. by marking the back-reference @Transient or removing one side of the embedding.

When it happens

Trigger: An @Embeddable / @Embedded / @ElementCollection mapping violates an embeddable mapping constraint.

Common situations: Embeddables with @Id members, inheritance, recursive composition, or properties split across multiple tables; or @Convert/@EmbeddedTable placed where unsupported.

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e5f51f3d5ddfa83d. Report an issue: GitHub.