How to deserialize JSON objects to immutable classes with circular references?

Question

Please see update below on a quick way to reproduce exception

The following two classes form a circular reference:

@JsonIdentityInfo(generator = ObjectIdGenerators.PropertyGenerator.class, 
                  property = "code")
@Value
public class Department {
  String code;
  @ToString.Exclude
  List<Employee> employees;      
}

@JsonIdentityInfo(generator = ObjectIdGenerators.IntSequenceGenerator.class, 
                  property="id")
@Value
public class Employee {
  String name;
  Department department;
}

In a producer web service (using Jackson via Spring @RestController), these classes get serialized into JSON. Here's an example response returning a Department object:

{
  "code": "HR",
  "employees": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "Bob",
      "department": "HR"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "name": "Sally",
      "department": "HR"
    }
  ]
}

In a consumer service (which is a @FeignClient of the producer), the data is attempted to be deserialized in the exact same two classes. However, I get the following exception:

Error while extracting response for type [class com.example.Department] and content type [application/json]; nested exception is org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageNotReadableException: JSON parse error: No Object Id found for an instance of `com.example.Employee`, to assign to property 'id'; nested exception is com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.MismatchedInputException: No Object Id found for an instance of `com.example.Employee`, to assign to property 'id' at [Source: (PushbackInputStream); line: 1, column: 65] (through reference chain: com.example.Department["employees"]->java.util.ArrayList[0])

feign.codec.DecodeException: Error while extracting response for type [class com.example.Department] and content type [application/json]; nested exception is org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageNotReadableException: JSON parse error: No Object Id found for an instance of `com.example.Employee`, to assign to property 'id'; nested exception is com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.MismatchedInputException: No Object Id found for an instance of `com.example.Employee`, to assign to property 'id'

at [Source: (PushbackInputStream); line: 1, column: 65] (through reference chain: com.example.Department["employees"]->java.util.ArrayList[0])

I'm using lombok.anyConstructor.addConstructorProperties=true to support constructor property setting ala this post. I get the same error if I directly use @ConstructorProperties so it's not a Lombok issue.

When I make the class mutable (e,g, replace lombok @Value with @Data) or don't have circular references, everything works fine. But I would like my classes to be immutable.

Is it possible to use @JsonIdentityInfo to support circular references and deserialize into immutable classes?

Update

This is easy to reproduce. Create a project with the two classes noted above.

Using this gradle build file:

plugins {
    id 'java-library'
}

repositories {
    jcenter()
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:2.12.0'
    implementation 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:2.12.0'
    compileOnly 'org.projectlombok:lombok'
    annotationProcessor 'org.projectlombok:lombok'
    testImplementation 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.12.0'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
}

Then, run this simple test:

public class DeserializationTest {

    @Test
    public void testDeserializationIntoImmutableClasses() throws JsonProcessingException {

        List<Employee> employees = new ArrayList<>();
        
        Department hr = new Department("HR", employees);
        
        Employee bob = new Employee("Bob", hr);
        Employee sally = new Employee("Sally", hr);
        
        employees.add(bob);
        employees.add(sally);

        ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
        //serialize object referenced by object variable hr
        String hrJson = om.writeValueAsString(hr);
        
        //test fails by throwing 
        // com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.MismatchedInputException: 
        // No Object Id found for an instance of `com.example.Employee`, to 
        // assign to property 'id' at 
        // [Source: (String)"
        //    {"code":"HR","employees": 
        //      [{"id":1,"name":"Bob","department":"HR"}, 
        //       {"id":2,"name":"Sally","department":"HR"}]}"; 
        //  line: 1, column: 65] 
        // (through reference chain: com.example.Department["employees"]- 
        // >java.util.ArrayList[0])
        om.readValue(hrJson, Department.class);
        
    }

}

I'll look at adding to GitHub and include the link in a second update.