Currently, JVMCI is more limited than core reflection. This means some JVMCI clients must fallback to core reflection in some cases. For example, JVMCI support for reflecting on annotations is limited to the equivalent of java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement#getDeclaredAnnotations and it has no support for retrieving type or parameter annotations. Furthermore, the existing annotations support can have unintended side effects such as triggering class initialization of enum classes (as part of reifying enum constants in annotations).

This issue exists to expand support for annotations in JVMCI such that JVMCI clients can perform all annotation introspection without need for core reflection. Furthermore, the enhancements will ensure annotation introspection does not trigger unwanted class initialization.