java - SpringBoot - BeanDefinitionOverrideException: Invalid bean definition

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I am trying to setup DynamoDB locally with Spring Boot. Initially I got the setup working and was able to write/save to DynamoDB via a repository. From that point I added more classes to build my application. Now when I try to start my application, I get the following exception:

org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionOverrideException: Invalid bean definition with name 'agentRepository' defined in null: Cannot register bean definition [Root bean: class [org.socialsignin.spring.data.dynamodb.repository.support.DynamoDBRepositoryFactoryBean]; scope=; abstract=false; lazyInit=false; autowireMode=0; dependencyCheck=0; autowireCandidate=true; primary=false; factoryBeanName=null; factoryMethodName=null; initMethodName=null; destroyMethodName=null] for bean 'agentRepository': There is already [Root bean: class [org.socialsignin.spring.data.dynamodb.repository.support.DynamoDBRepositoryFactoryBean]; scope=; abstract=false; lazyInit=false; autowireMode=0; dependencyCheck=0; autowireCandidate=true; primary=false; factoryBeanName=null; factoryMethodName=null; initMethodName=null; destroyMethodName=null] bound.

I have searched SO and internet extensively but there were no any useful solution to this. The error message is misleading as well.

My project is of the following hierarchy

ai.test.as
      - agent
          - business
          - intent
          - exception
          - Agent.java
          - AgentDTO.java
          - AgentRespository.java
          - AgentController.java
          - AgentService.java
          - AgentServiceImpl.java
  - config
     - DynamoDBConfig.java
DynamoDBConfig.java
package ai.test.as.config;
import ai.test.as.agent.AgentRepository;
import ai.test.as.agent.intent.template.TemplateRepository;
import com.amazonaws.auth.AWSCredentials;
import com.amazonaws.auth.BasicAWSCredentials;
import com.amazonaws.services.dynamodbv2.AmazonDynamoDB;
import com.amazonaws.services.dynamodbv2.AmazonDynamoDBClient;
import org.socialsignin.spring.data.dynamodb.repository.config.EnableDynamoDBRepositories;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
@Configuration
@EnableDynamoDBRepositories(basePackageClasses = {AgentRepository.class})
public class DynamoDBConfig
    @Value("${aws.dynamodb.endpoint}")
    private String dynamoDBEndpoint;
    @Value("${aws.auth.accesskey}")
    private String awsAccessKey;
    @Value("${aws.auth.secretkey}")
    private String awsSecretKey;
    @Bean
    public AmazonDynamoDB amazonDynamoDB()
        AmazonDynamoDB dynamoDB = new AmazonDynamoDBClient(getAwsCredentials());
        dynamoDB.setEndpoint(dynamoDBEndpoint);
        return dynamoDB;
    @Bean
    public AWSCredentials getAwsCredentials()
        return new BasicAWSCredentials(awsAccessKey, awsSecretKey);
AgentRepository.java
package ai.test.as.agent;
import ai.test.as.agent.Agent;
import org.socialsignin.spring.data.dynamodb.repository.EnableScan;
import org.springframework.data.repository.CrudRepository;
@EnableScan
public interface AgentRepository extends CrudRepository<Agent, String>
AgentController.java (Where AgentRepository is used)
@RestController
@RequestMapping(value = "/v1/agents")
public class AgentController
    @Autowired
    private AgentRepository agentRepository;
    @RequestMapping(value = "/test", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public void test()
        Agent agent = new Agent();
        agent.setAgentNumber("123456");
        agent.setId(1);
        agentRepository.save(agent);
Spring suggests the following:
> The bean 'agentRepository', defined in null, could not be registered. A bean with that name has already been defined in null and overriding is disabled.
What does null mean here? Is it because something wrong in my application config? Also how is it possible that it is already registered?
Please give me some pointers because I so confused about my next steps.
                Previously when I tried I did not use @Component annotation to read write from DynamoDB. But nevertheless I tried now as you mentioned and it does not work.
– Vino
                Dec 11, 2018 at 11:39
                Regarding your question if the bean is already registered you can print all the bean in the context via using the method getBeanDefinitionNames() of  ApplicationContext object. Via printing them in the console you can see which beans keys are used. There are several example in the web so I won t share it here
– OEH
                Dec 11, 2018 at 11:50
                Can you please add [@Repository] or [@Service] annotations to your AgentRepository class and try? and also your AgentRepository is an interface, is there any use case to use interface instead of classes.
– venkat
                Dec 11, 2018 at 11:54
Bean overriding has to be enabled since Spring Boot 2.1,
https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/wiki/Spring-Boot-2.1-Release-Notes
Bean Overriding
Bean overriding has been disabled by default to prevent a bean being accidentally overridden. If you are relying on overriding, you will need to set spring.main.allow-bean-definition-overriding to true.
spring.main.allow-bean-definition-overriding=true
or yml,
spring:
   main:
     allow-bean-definition-overriding: true
to enable overriding again.
Edit,
Bean Overriding is based of the name of the bean not its type. e.g.
@Bean
public ClassA class(){
   return new ClassA();
@Bean
public ClassB class(){
   return new ClassB();
Will cause this error in > 2.1, by default bean names are taken from the method name. Renaming the method or adding the name attribute to the Bean annotation will be a valid fix.
                Hey thank you for your answer. But may I know why I should override the bean? I am sure I am only creating only one bean of AgentRepository. So whats being overridden?
– Vino
                Dec 11, 2018 at 12:02
                Read that exception that is not what it is complianing about. It is complaining about the DynamoDBRepositoryFactoryBean bean.  I assume it is already being registered via the boot application and @EnableDynamoDBRepositories(basePackageClasses = {AgentRepository.class}) isn't required.  Also to whomever downvoted its common to explain why.
– Darren Forsythe
                Dec 11, 2018 at 12:04
                Opinion that it's dirty given it is a feature in Spring Framework, and widely used. Removing the EnableDynamoDBRepositories(basePackageClasses = {AgentRepository.class}) my resolve it but I don't have access to a Dynamo setup if I had to guess it may be triggering creation of the bean again but if it doesn't resolve it I'd raise an issue on and provide an example.
– Darren Forsythe
                Dec 11, 2018 at 12:13
                @DarrenForsythe FYI I tried removing @EnableDynamoDBRepositories and removed the overriding property too but the problem still persists. So I think the said annotation is needed regardless.
– Vino
                Dec 11, 2018 at 12:36
                I assume that's a third party lib given the package, I'd reach out to the maintainers with a quick example. Likely was relying on the overriding capabilities
– Darren Forsythe
                Dec 11, 2018 at 12:42
Enable bean overriding with such approach for example
@SpringBootTest(properties = "spring.main.allow-bean-definition-overriding=true")
@SpringBootApplication (properties = "spring.main.allow-bean-definition-overriding=true")
                Note that if its a Test bean your solution is pretty much the same, don't rely on bean naming. rename it, use primary if required to inject it
– Darren Forsythe
                Feb 7, 2020 at 23:30
                Yeah this is basically not necessary for a test. If you want to not have this issue you need to make sure your SpringBootTest is not picking up by default the main Application context if you have a specific on for your tests.
– Pwnstar
                Sep 29, 2022 at 14:17
I think I had the same problem with MongoDB. At least the error message looked exactly the same and I also had just one repository for the MongoDB, something like this:
public interface MyClassMongoRepository extends MongoRepository<MyClass, Long> {
The problem had been caused by class MyClass which had been used in another database before. Spring silently created some JpaRepository before creating the MongoRepository. Both repositories had the same name which caused the conflict.
Solution was to make a copy of MyClass, move it into the package of the MongoRepository and remove any JPA-specific annotations.
                Yeah that fixes the problem but it ties your code to the persistence provider (MongoDB) which defeats the purpose of JPA.
– Ahmad Abdelghany
                Jun 24, 2021 at 9:26
                @AhmadAbdelghany, I am aware of that but I simply wanted to provide another option for developers that do not want to change a global option to fix al local problem.
– Sascha Doerdelmann
                Jun 29, 2021 at 11:10
I just stumbled across the same issue while trying to add a PostgreSQL database via spring-data-jdbc to an existing project wich was already using a MongoDB.
It seems like the problem was that the repositories for MongoDB and PostgreSQL were scanned by both modules (spring-mongo and spring-jdbc). They both try to create some beans and clash.
In my case the MongoDB repositories and the PostgreSQL repositories were in the same package.
The accepted answer solved the problem for me -
but i kind of got a hint from this startup logs:
Finished Spring Data repository scanning in 319ms. Found 4 repository interfaces
Finished Spring Data repository scanning in 319ms. Found 5 repository interfaces
This is weird because i only have 1 repository for PostgreSQL and 4 for MongoDB.
I moved the PostgreSQL repository into a different package than the MongoDB repository and configured the base package of the PostgreSQL repositories to the new package.
In my case:
@EnableJdbcRepositories(basePackageClasses = MyOnlyPostgreSQLRepository.class) // TODO: Use the real package or a dedicated base class
This solved the issue for me (no property set for bean overriding - which i prefer). The startups logs also show the correct amount of repositories now (1 and 4).
                yes, I can confirm that adding an extra @Configuration bean with @EnableJpaRepositories(basePackages = {"A.repository", "A.common.repository"}), solved the issue in my case (I had Repository objects defined both in my main project (package A.repository), and in an intermediate library referenced by that project (package A.common.repository))
– hello_earth
                Aug 1, 2021 at 12:47
I came across this same issue, the problem was that multiple repository factories were trying to register all repositories interfaces with them. In my case, it was JpaRepositoryFactoryBean & DynamoDBRepositoryFactoryBean. As mentioned in other answers, you could see that on the logs indicated by:
[INFO] Bootstrapping Spring Data DynamoDB repositories in DEFAULT mode.
[INFO] Finished Spring Data repository scanning in 64ms. Found 2 DynamoDB repository interfaces.
[INFO] Bootstrapping Spring Data JPA repositories in DEFAULT mode.
Solution is:
Make sure you are using compatible versions of spring-data-dynamodb / spring-boot / spring-data by checking the compatibility matrix
Make sure each repository is created only once. In my case, I had to add
@SpringBootApplication
@EnableAutoConfiguration(exclude = {
       DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class,
       DataSourceTransactionManagerAutoConfiguration.class,
       HibernateJpaAutoConfiguration.class})
The config may differ in different versions and depending on how many repositories you have in your application. It may be helpful to read about Multi-Repository-configuration
you can use
spring.main.allow-bean-definition-overriding=true in application.properties file
use @SpringBootApplication (properties = "spring.main.allow-bean-definition-overriding=true")
This error message is indicating that you have multiple bean definitions with the same name defined in your application. In Spring framework, each bean must have a unique name within the application context.
To resolve this issue, you should rename one of the classes or its bean definition, so that each bean definition has a unique name. You can do this by using the "name" attribute in the @Component, @Repository, or @Service annotations.
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