Coupling/Decoupling domain exceptions from HTTP semantics

I’m designing error handling in a Spring Boot REST API and I’m unsure about the proper separation of concerns between the domain layer and the web layer.

I currently have a base DomainException with subclasses like ExpiredOrderException.

Option 1 – Keep HTTP out of the domain

Domain exceptions only contain domain information (code, args, defaultMessage), and the controller advice decides the HTTP status:

public class DomainException extends RuntimeException { private final String code; private final Object[] args; private final String defaultMessage; public DomainException(String code, String defaultMessage, Object... args) { super(defaultMessage); this.code = code; this.defaultMessage = defaultMessage; this.args = args; } public String getCode() { return code; } public String getDefaultMessage() { return defaultMessage; } public Object[] getArgs() { return args; } } public class ExpiredOrderException extends DomainException { public ExpiredOrderException(Object... args) { super( "error.order.expired", "This order is already expired.", args ); } } @ExceptionHandler({ ExpiredOrderException.class // add other domain exceptions here }) public ResponseEntity<ProblemDetail> handleBadRequest(DomainException ex) { Locale locale = LocaleContextHolder.getLocale(); String localizedMessage = messageSource.getMessage( ex.getCode(), ex.getArgs(), ex.getDefaultMessage(), locale ); ProblemDetail pd = ProblemDetail.forStatus(HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST); pd.setTitle(ex.getCode()); pd.setDetail(localizedMessage); pd.setProperty("args", ex.getArgs()); pd.setProperty("locale", locale.toLanguageTag()); return ResponseEntity.badRequest().body(pd); }

Here, the domain layer is completely unaware of HTTP.
But introduces a pain point listing exception classes.

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Option 2 – Put HTTP status inside the exception

The domain exception carries the HTTP status code:

public class DomainException extends RuntimeException { private final int httpCode; private final String code; private final Object[] args; private final String defaultMessage; public DomainException(int httpCode, String code, String defaultMessage, Object... args) { super(code); this.httpCode = httpCode; this.code = code; this.args = args; this.defaultMessage = defaultMessage; } public int getHttpCode() { return httpCode; } public String getCode() { return code; } public String getDefaultMessage() { return defaultMessage; } public Object[] getArgs() { return args; } } public class ExpiredOrderException extends DomainException { public ExpiredOrderException(Object... args) { super(400, "error.order.expired", "This order is already expired.", args); } } @ExceptionHandler(DomainException.class) public ProblemDetail handleDomainExceptions(DomainException ex) { Locale locale = LocaleContextHolder.getLocale(); String localizedMessage = messageSource.getMessage( ex.getCode(), ex.getArgs(), ex.getDefaultMessage(), locale ); ProblemDetail pd = ProblemDetail.forStatus(ex.getHttpCode()); pd.setTitle(ex.getCode()); pd.setDetail(localizedMessage); return pd; }

Carrying the HTTP status code inside the exception is more convenient, but I’m concerned about clean architecture. This approach seems to couple the domain layer to HTTP semantics.

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My Questions

From a clean architecture, is it considered a bad practice for domain exceptions to carry HTTP status codes?

In general is there a recommended pattern in Spring Boot for mapping domain exceptions to HTTP responses?