hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · IllegalArgumentException

Unable to find attribute %s -> %s

Error message

Unable to find attribute %s -> %s

What it means

Error "Unable to find attribute %s -> %s" thrown in hibernate/hibernate-orm.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/metamodel/mapping/internal/MappingModelCreationHelper.java:894

			}
		}
		else {
			referencedPropertyName = null;
		}

		if ( referencedPropertyName != null  ) {
			if ( referencedPropertyName.indexOf( '.' ) > 0 ) {
				return interpretNestedToOneKeyDescriptor(
						referencedEntityDescriptor,
						referencedPropertyName,
						attributeMapping,
						creationProcess
				);
			}

			final var modelPart = referencedEntityDescriptor.findByPath( referencedPropertyName );
			if ( modelPart == null ) {
				throw new IllegalArgumentException( "Unable to find attribute " + bootProperty.getPersistentClass()
						.getEntityName() + " -> " + bootProperty.getName() );
			}
			else if ( modelPart instanceof ToOneAttributeMapping toOneAttributeMapping ) {
				setReferencedAttributeForeignKeyDescriptor(
						attributeMapping,
						toOneAttributeMapping,
						referencedEntityDescriptor,
						referencedPropertyName,
						creationProcess
				);
			}
			else if ( modelPart instanceof EmbeddableValuedModelPart embeddableValuedModelPart ) {
				final var embeddedForeignKeyDescriptor = buildEmbeddableForeignKeyDescriptor(
						getPropertyPath( attributeMapping.getNavigableRole() ),
						embeddableValuedModelPart,
						bootValueMapping,
						attributeMapping.getDeclaringType(),
						attributeMapping.findContainingEntityMapping(),

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Verify the referenced attribute path exists on the target entity/embeddable; fix the referencedPropertyName or mappedBy value.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown when a referenced attribute cannot be found on the target embeddable or entity while building a foreign key mapping.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f6d59fc56d09b276. Report an issue: GitHub.