diff --git a/R/cli-errors.R b/R/cli-errors.R
index 1d2c70d2..e4fc4e34 100644
--- a/R/cli-errors.R
+++ b/R/cli-errors.R
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ cli_error <- function(
   if (length(.data)) {
     cnd[names(.data)] <- .data
   }
-  if (length(class)) {
+  if (length(.class)) {
     class(cnd) <- c(.class, class(cnd))
   }