Why You Should Stop Using Lombok’s @Builder and Prefer @Accessors

The author revisits previous warnings about Lombok’s @Builder annotation, highlighting a major pitfall where default values are lost and noting that @Builder often gives a false impression of following the builder pattern.

Scenario reproduction : The article presents a class definition without @Builder and a usage example, followed by the same class annotated with @Builder and its usage, showing how the generated code differs and how default values can disappear.

package io.gitrebase.demo;

import lombok.AllArgsConstructor;
import lombok.Builder;
import lombok.Data;
import lombok.NoArgsConstructor;

@Data
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor
public class APIResponse
{
    private T payload;
    private Status status;
}

package io.gitrebase.demo;

import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseStatus;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestControllerAdvice;

@Slf4j
@RestControllerAdvice(assignableTypes = io.gitrebase.demo.RestApplication.class)
public class ApplicationExceptionHandler {
    @ResponseStatus(code = HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
    public APIResponse handleException(Exception exception) {
        log.error("Unhandled Exception", exception);
        Status status = new Status();
        status.setResponseCode("RESPONSE_CODE_IDENTIFIER");
        status.setDescription("Bla Bla Bla");
        APIResponse response = new APIResponse();
        response.setStatus(status);
        return response;
    }
}

Why @Builder is discouraged : The generated builder cannot differentiate required from optional parameters, is mutable (violating the immutable builder principle), ties to concrete types, and is only suitable for objects with many optional fields, making it error‑prone.

Alternative solution – @Accessors : The author recommends Lombok’s @Accessors annotation with chain = true as the primary replacement. A class definition using @Data and @Accessors is shown, followed by the compiled class code that includes fluent setter methods.

package io.gitrebase.demo;

import lombok.Data;
import lombok.experimental.Accessors;

@Data
@Accessors(chain = true)
public class APIResponse
{
    private T payload;
    private Status status;
}

package io.gitrebase.demo;

import lombok.experimental.Accessors;

@Accessors(chain = true)
public class APIResponse
{
    private T payload;
    private Status status;
    public T getPayload() { return this.payload; }
    public APIResponse
setPayload(T payload) { this.payload = payload; return this; }
    public Status getStatus() { return this.status; }
    public APIResponse
setStatus(Status status) { this.status = status; return this; }
}

Usage example with @Accessors demonstrates creating a response object via chained setters, eliminating the need for @Builder.

package io.gitrebase.demo;

import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
import lombok.var;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseStatus;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestControllerAdvice;

@Slf4j
@RestControllerAdvice(basePackageClasses = io.gitrebase.demo.RestApplication.class)
public class ApplicationExceptionHandler {
    @ResponseStatus(code = HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
    public APIResponse handleException(Exception exception) {
        log.error("Unhandled Exception", exception);
        var status = new Status().setResponseCode("RESPONSE_CODE_IDENTIFIER").setDescription("Bla Bla Bla");
        return new APIResponse().setStatus(status);
    }
}

The article also notes that @Accessors resides in the experimental Lombok package, but argues it is stable and unlikely to be removed; even if it were, developers can manually implement fluent setters.

Inspiration: Readers are encouraged to inspect generated source code, understand Lombok’s behavior, and think critically about using annotations, as misuse can lead to subtle bugs.

References: Links to the original articles "千万不要再随便使用 lombok 的 @Builder 了！" and "Oh !! Stop using @Builder" are provided.