Compass fails to add Id field in some circumstances. I am attaching a test case that shows the problem. However, I am unsure if this will work on your machine, it's basically dependent on the order that the mappings are processed, which in turn is dependent on the order that the mappings are inserted, which in turn is dependent on their location in the HashMap where the annotations are inserted after they're processed by the java libraries. The problem will only occur if the @SearchableComponent in Business is the first element to be processed. The investigation I did seems to indicate that context.setAttribute(DISABLE_INTERNAL_MAPPINGS, DISABLE_INTERNAL_MAPPINGS_MARK) in ClassMappingConverter ends up being called as part of the processing of of that @SearchableComponent and it never gets unset. As a result, the insertion of the Id for Business gets skipped. The end result is that I get the following exception. org.compass.gps.device.jpa.JpaGpsDeviceException: Failed while creating [org.compass.core.test.Business@d71194d]; nested exception is org.compass.core.engine.SearchEngineException: Id with path [$/Business/code] for alias [Business] not found org.compass.core.engine.SearchEngineException: Id with path [$/Business/code] for alias [Business] not found at org.compass.core.engine.utils.ResourceHelper.toIds(ResourceHelper.java:76) at org.compass.core.engine.utils.ResourceHelper.toIds(ResourceHelper.java:58) at org.compass.core.spi.ResourceKey.<init>(ResourceKey.java:40) at org.compass.core.lucene.LuceneResource.resourceKey(LuceneResource.java:111) at org.compass.core.lucene.engine.transaction.ReadCommittedTransaction.doCreate(ReadCommittedTransaction.java:314) at org.compass.core.lucene.engine.transaction.AbstractTransaction.create(AbstractTransaction.java:109) at org.compass.core.lucene.engine.LuceneSearchEngine.create(LuceneSearchEngine.java:330) at org.compass.core.impl.DefaultCompassSession.create(DefaultCompassSession.java:288) at org.compass.gps.device.jpa.AbstractCompassJpaEntityListener$1.doInCompassWithoutResult(AbstractCompassJpaEntityListener.java:108) at org.compass.core.CompassCallbackWithoutResult.doInCompass(CompassCallbackWithoutResult.java:29) at org.compass.core.CompassTemplate.execute(CompassTemplate.java:134) at org.compass.core.CompassTemplate.execute(CompassTemplate.java:117) at org.compass.gps.device.jpa.AbstractCompassJpaEntityListener.postPersist(AbstractCompassJpaEntityListener.java:106) at org.compass.gps.device.jpa.lifecycle.TopLinkEssentialsJpaEntityLifecycleInjector$TopLinkEssentialsEventListener.postInsert(TopLinkEssentialsJpaEntityLifecycleInjector.java:47) at oracle.toplink.essentials.descriptors.DescriptorEventManager.notifyListener(DescriptorEventManager.java:628) at oracle.toplink.essentials.descriptors.DescriptorEventManager.notifyListeners(DescriptorEventManager.java:679) at oracle.toplink.essentials.descriptors.DescriptorEventManager.executeEvent(DescriptorEventManager.java:198) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.queryframework.DatabaseQueryMechanism.insertObjectForWrite(DatabaseQueryMechanism.java:476) at oracle.toplink.essentials.queryframework.InsertObjectQuery.executeCommit(InsertObjectQuery.java:74) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.queryframework.DatabaseQueryMechanism.performUserDefinedWrite(DatabaseQueryMechanism.java:635) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.queryframework.DatabaseQueryMechanism.performUserDefinedInsert(DatabaseQueryMechanism.java:599) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.queryframework.DatabaseQueryMechanism.insertObjectForWriteWithChangeSet(DatabaseQueryMechanism.java:495) at oracle.toplink.essentials.queryframework.WriteObjectQuery.executeCommitWithChangeSet(WriteObjectQuery.java:130) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.queryframework.DatabaseQueryMechanism.executeWriteWithChangeSet(DatabaseQueryMechanism.java:283) at oracle.toplink.essentials.queryframework.WriteObjectQuery.executeDatabaseQuery(WriteObjectQuery.java:67) at oracle.toplink.essentials.queryframework.DatabaseQuery.execute(DatabaseQuery.java:609) at oracle.toplink.essentials.queryframework.DatabaseQuery.executeInUnitOfWork(DatabaseQuery.java:536) at oracle.toplink.essentials.queryframework.ObjectLevelModifyQuery.executeInUnitOfWorkObjectLevelModifyQuery(ObjectLevelModifyQuery.java:123) at oracle.toplink.essentials.queryframework.ObjectLevelModifyQuery.executeInUnitOfWork(ObjectLevelModifyQuery.java:95) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.UnitOfWorkImpl.internalExecuteQuery(UnitOfWorkImpl.java:2219) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.AbstractSession.executeQuery(AbstractSession.java:937) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.AbstractSession.executeQuery(AbstractSession.java:894) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.CommitManager.commitNewObjectsForClassWithChangeSet(CommitManager.java:254) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.CommitManager.commitAllObjectsForClassWithChangeSet(CommitManager.java:231) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.CommitManager.commitAllObjectsWithChangeSet(CommitManager.java:187) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.AbstractSession.writeAllObjectsWithChangeSet(AbstractSession.java:2638) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.UnitOfWorkImpl.commitToDatabase(UnitOfWorkImpl.java:1030) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.RepeatableWriteUnitOfWork.commitToDatabase(RepeatableWriteUnitOfWork.java:357) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.sessions.UnitOfWorkImpl.commitToDatabaseWithPreBuiltChangeSet(UnitOfWorkImpl.java:1146) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.RepeatableWriteUnitOfWork.writeChanges(RepeatableWriteUnitOfWork.java:235) at oracle.toplink.essentials.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.EntityManagerImpl.flush(EntityManagerImpl.java:314) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.SharedEntityManagerCreator$SharedEntityManagerInvocationHandler.invoke(SharedEntityManagerCreator.java:176) at $Proxy17.flush(Unknown Source) at org.compass.core.test.CompassTest.testCompass(CompassTest.java:18) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) at junit.framework.TestCase.runTest(TestCase.java:154) at junit.framework.TestCase.runBare(TestCase.java:127) at org.springframework.test.ConditionalTestCase.runBare(ConditionalTestCase.java:69) at org.springframework.test.annotation.AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.access$001(AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.java:44) at org.springframework.test.annotation.AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests$1.run(AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.java:112) at org.springframework.test.annotation.AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.runTest(AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.java:177) at org.springframework.test.annotation.AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.runTestTimed(AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.java:150) at org.springframework.test.annotation.AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.runBare(AbstractAnnotationAwareTransactionalTests.java:108) at org.springframework.test.jpa.AbstractJpaTests.runBare(AbstractJpaTests.java:160) at org.springframework.test.jpa.AbstractJpaTests.runBare(AbstractJpaTests.java:239) at junit.framework.TestResult$1.protect(TestResult.java:106) at junit.framework.TestResult.runProtected(TestResult.java:124) at junit.framework.TestResult.run(TestResult.java:109) at junit.framework.TestCase.run(TestCase.java:118) at junit.framework.TestSuite.runTest(TestSuite.java:208) at junit.framework.TestSuite.run(TestSuite.java:203) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.junit3.JUnit3TestReference.run(JUnit3TestReference.java:128) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.java:38) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:460) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:673) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:386) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:196) Hopefully this (along with the test case) is enough information for you to figure out where things go wrong.