spring-projects / spring-projects/spring-data-rest

Custom repository implementation is not exposed as REST endpoint after upgrade from 4.x to 5.x

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@odrotbohm is already working on this.

Since Mar 23, 2026.

status: waiting-for-triage
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Description

Given a simple REST exposed repository with a custom fragment

@Entity
class Item {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.UUID)
    var id: UUID? = null

    lateinit var value: String

}

interface SearchRepository {
    fun fragment(): Iterable<Item>
}

class SearchRepositoryImpl : SearchRepository {
    override fun fragment(): Iterable<Item> {
        return emptyList()
    }
}

@RepositoryRestResource
interface EntityRepository : Repository<Item, UUID>, SearchRepository {
    fun findAll(): Iterable<Item>
}

With Spring Boot 3 which uses Spring Data REST 4 the following response is returned if request the (generated) /{repository}/search` endpoint:

{
  "_links" : {
    "fragment" : {
      "href" : "https://example.com/items/search/fragment"
    },
    "self" : {
      "href" : "https://example.com/items/search"
    }
  }
}

But after update to Spring Boot 4 which uses Spring Data REST 5 the endpoint can not be found anymore. Also the main repository endpoint /{repository} lost the search link:

{
  "_embedded" : {
    "items" : [ ]
  },
  "_links" : {
    "self" : {
      "href" : "https://example.com/items"
    },
    "profile" : {
      "href" : "https://example.com/profile/items"
    }
  }
}

Before update:

{
   "_embedded" : {
     "items" : [ ]
   },
   "_links" : {
     "self" : {
       "href" : "https://example.com/items"
     },
     "profile" : {
       "href" : "https://example.com/profile/items"
     },
     "search" : {
       "href" : "https://example.com/items/search"
     }
   }
 }

A minimal project with test(s) can be found at https://github.com/agebhar1/gh-spring-data-rest-repository-fragment with a branch for Spring Boot 3 w/ Spring Data REST 4 and Spring Boot 4 w/ Spring Data REST 5.

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