NullPointerException is the most common runtime error in Java. JSpecify is the standardized solution — annotate your APIs and get compile-time null safety. Spring Framework 7 adopts JSpecify throughout, and your code can too. The Problem // Is this safe? You don't know without reading the implementation. public Order findById(UUID id) { return repository.findById(id).orElse(null); // returns null! } // The caller has no warning: Order order = service.findById(id); order.cancel(); // ← NullPointerException if not found Without null annotations, every method call is potentially null — you write defensive code everywhere, or you miss a case and get a NPE in production.