I've been using <compass:scan/> in my spring config to scan a whole package for Compass-annotated classes. When Compass encounters a class which does not have annotations, I get a NPE from JavassistClassMetaData. If I narrow the scan to match only that class, then I still get the exception. If, however, I use <compass:class/> to specify the class, I get a more useful "no annotations found"-type exception. Stack trace as follows Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException at org.compass.core.config.binding.metadata.JavassistClassMetaData.hasAnnotation(JavassistClassMetaData.java:96) at org.compass.annotations.config.binding.AnnotationsMappingBinding.isApplicable(AnnotationsMappingBinding.java:97) at org.compass.core.config.binding.AbstractClassMetaDataMappingBinding.doAddInputStream(AbstractClassMetaDataMappingBinding.java:35) at org.compass.core.config.binding.AbstractInputStreamMappingBinding.internalAddInputStream(AbstractInputStreamMappingBinding.java:1 92) at org.compass.core.config.binding.AbstractInputStreamMappingBinding.addInputStream(AbstractInputStreamMappingBinding.java:174) at org.compass.core.config.CompassMappingBinding.addInputStream(CompassMappingBinding.java:185) at org.compass.core.config.CompassConfiguration.addScan(CompassConfiguration.java:507) at org.compass.core.config.builder.SchemaConfigurationBuilder.bindMappings(SchemaConfigurationBuilder.java:714) 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:585) at org.compass.core.config.builder.SchemaConfigurationBuilder.processCompass(SchemaConfigurationBuilder.java:85)