Every HTTP::Exception is a Exception::Class - Class. So the same mechanisms apply as with Exception::Class-classes. In fact have a look at Exception::Class' docs for more general information on exceptions and Exception::Class::Base for information on what methods a caught exception also has. HTTP::Exception is only a factory for HTTP::Exception::XXX (where X is a number) subclasses. That means that HTTP::Exception->new(404) returns a HTTP::Exception::404 object, which in turn is a HTTP::Exception::Base - Object.