---
title: MARKLESS_OVERLAY_HOST_ELEMENT_REQUIRED
description: "overlay can only be marked on host elements: a Markless compiler error."
sidebar: { hidden: true }
search: { keywords: ["OVERLAY_HOST_ELEMENT_REQUIRED","overlay host element required","markless error"] }
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---

**Error** from the compiler, while it builds your `.tsrx` files.

## What happened

Markless prints the message, the reason, and a suggestion:

```text
MARKLESS_OVERLAY_HOST_ELEMENT_REQUIRED: Cannot mark overlay on component <owner>. overlay elevates one concrete host element above the rest of the UI and needs a host element owner.
Elevation is applied to a DOM element. A component is not a DOM locator and may render zero, one, or many host nodes, and overlay cannot be forwarded to one as a prop because its value must be a literal.
Move overlay onto the host element that should be elevated, inside the component TSRX body.
https://markless.dev/errors/MARKLESS_OVERLAY_HOST_ELEMENT_REQUIRED
```

Words in angle brackets change from case to case.

## How to fix it

Start with the suggestion in the message above.

This page has no guide yet. [Help write it](/contributing/improve-these-docs).

## Where it comes from

`@markless/compiler` raises this code. Source:

- [packages/compiler/src/passes/semantic-graph/diagnostics.ts](https://github.com/compiled-run/markless/blob/main/packages/compiler/src/passes/semantic-graph/diagnostics.ts)

Read [how to read a Markless error](/tooling/diagnostics), or go back to [all error codes](/errors).